NOTES FROJt EAST DEVON. 289 



twice. In the first case, I found one on the back of an Apamea didyma, 

 beginning to make a meal off its head, and as the latter remained 

 motionless it must have been already stung. Later, on the same even- 

 ing, on another patch, I found a Ci)siiiia trapezina with the front part of 

 its head demolished and a centipede in a similar position. The wings 

 and body of the moth were arched, the result presumably of the poison 

 injected. 



In early August I spent many hours in woods and beside hedges 

 and ditches hunting for the larva of the Stachi/s plume or plumes. It 

 was an exercise of patience, as I came to^consider myself well rewarded 

 if I returned home in two or three hours with three or four. I could 

 not come across any colony — the season certainly has not been a 

 favourable one for the Amhli/jitiliae. I found both the red and green 

 larviB ; the former are generally the smaller and to be met with before 

 the purplish red corona has fallen oft", the latter larger and on plants which 

 are seeding, the colour being evidently protective. From the few I kept 

 I bred three imagines, two large with olive-green, black and white mark- 

 ings — typical acantJioilactj/la [cosiiXHiarti/la) — and one small and reddish- 

 brown — an equally typical A. rosiiioilacti/la (iicajitJiodactifla). Macroi/lossa 

 stellatarnii) has been very abundant, as everywhere else. In the garden 

 it preferred the flowers of lavender and scarlet geraniums, a luxuriant 

 bed of petunias adjacent being comparatively neglected. It was on 

 tbe wing early in the mornings and in the evenings. All the common 

 butterflies, too, have been here, there, and everywhere ; a few Xejiln/ras 

 bcUdae were to be found around the blackthorn bushes on the higher 

 grounds, and in September I saw three Colias ediifia. On the 28th and 

 29th of that month two C. ht/ale flitted in sunny meadows from one 

 yellow head of hawkbit to another close at my feet, but I had no net 

 with me. 



Early in the first week of September a recently-emerged Sj)liinx 

 eonvolvidi was brought to me from Honiton, mutilated in transmission. 

 I heard of a second being taken the following week, and on September 

 2ord I netted a worn <? on a bed of Xicotiana ajfinis in the garden. I 

 saw no others, though the plants had been watched at dusk since the 

 end of August. Light has so far been very unattractive this year. 



Since my last notes on the obsolete form of Xonosoiiia annidata, I 

 have bred part of a third brood, and, singularly, most of these are the 

 var, bi-obsoleta, though the parents were var. ubsolcta, and only two of 

 these had feebly marked rings on the hindwings. This shows there 

 must be an inherent tendency to the obsolescence of the rings. Most 

 are $ s, as they were last year — 90 per cent. I managed to get pair- 

 ings of the bi-obtiolcta form, and ova, larv!«, and finally pupa? followed 

 in due course ; the latter formed during the first and second weeks of 

 September. 



The larva> of Antia rillica, which I kept last year exposed to all 

 possible sunshine and fed on lettuce as long as it lasted and then on 

 cabbage, spun up in ^larch and appeared as imagines in April. They 

 showed minor variation in the size and shape of the cream-coloured 

 spots which in two were very small, and also in tlie union of the two 

 anal spots of the forewings by a broad or narrow neck. As this 

 occurred in a majority it may have been transmitted by the ^ parent, 

 unknown. All the Aui/rrona jininaria var. surdiata, bred true this 

 year, there were no reversions to type. Several are asymmetrical as 



