1871.} 279 
found sitting on the reed leaves, and many of them in plenty, while Dianthecia 
cucubali was several times caught flying over. What the attraction might be, 
I am unable to guess. Certainly it was not honey-dew, or food of any kind; the 
leaves were clean, and the moths were not looking for food. Apparently the 
reed-bed was a comfortable lounge, and they were enjoying themselves.—CHARLES 
G. Barrett, Norwich, 16th March, 1871. 
Natural History of Camptogramma: fluviata.—In the autumn of 1858, Intel- 
ligencer, vol. iv, p. 188, 1 published my first observations on this species, having 
then lately reared it from the egg, and proved that the difference between the light 
and dark forms of the imago was merely sexual. Since then I have reared many 
more broods from the egg, and have largely supplemented my early record of the 
various stages, until it seemed that the additional information thus collected might 
justify another and longer note. 
A more easy species to rear in confinement I do not know ; it seems quite tame 
and domestic; only let the temperature be warm enough, the larva feeds quietly 
and rapidly on food that grows everywhere; it spins up contentedly ; ninety-nine 
pup out of every hundred produce perfect imagos, and these last again make no 
difficulty about pairing and continuing their race. In fact, cold alone, and no 
mysterious instinct as to certain seasons in the year, puts a limit to the number of 
broods in any given number of months. Indoors, if the food can be supplied, 
perhaps six or seven broods might be reared in a year; in 186%, I had a § captured 
on May 22nd, and 152 days after, on October 21st, without forcing, I bred its 
great grand children, and then did not care to carry the strain further. Outdoors, 
of course, the character of the season would influence the number of broods, but 
in favourable times, with an early summer and mild winter, I feel sure there might 
be five broods: and in this I am supported by the published notices of captures 
made from May to January,* both months inclusive. In colder seasons there might 
be no more than three, or even two broods, every stage being greatly delayed by 
absence of warmth. Thus I have one brood recorded which went through the 
whole cycle of transformations in 29 days during a hot August, and another in a 
colder time which took 62 days; whilst the brood which hybernates in the pupa 
must, of course, take to its share a much longer period, from October or November 
till next May or June. 
The larva, when at large, is no doubt polyphagous, and I know it has been 
found or reared on Senecio vulgaris, Polygonum persicaria, and Agrimonia eupatoria ; 
like other geometers that feed on low plants, it is quiet and sluggish in its 
movements. 
In this neighbourhood, with the exception of one specimen beaten out of a 
hedge near a salt-marsh, and a few others taken at ivy-flowers, the great majority 
of our captures of the imago have been made at the street gas-lamps. 
The egg presents no striking peculiarity ; it is bluntly oval in outline, flattened ; 
the shell glistening, and faintly covered with very shallow and irregular reticulation ; 
in colour very pale yellow, or greenish-yellow, turning smoky just before the exit 
of the larva. 
* Mr. H. Rogers records the capture of a female at sugar, on January lst, 1858. Intelligen- 
cer, Vol. vii, p. 52 
