300 



I may add that the imago of E. notulana appears to be of very retiring habits. 

 I have worked for it at various times of the day, and onco or twice at night ; but 

 the whole of my captures amount only to one worn specimen sitting on a stem. — 

 Id. : September Ibtk, 1890. 



DeilephilaffaUi in Lancashire and Cheshire. — In conversation with the Liverpool 

 entomologists, Messrs. Capper, Gregson, Pierce, Harker and others, I have heard a 

 good deal about the abnormal abundance of larvae of Deilephiia galii in the year 

 1888, and certainly far more than has been recorded. It is difficult to arrive at an 

 estimate of the actual numbers that were taken, but it is asserted (and confirmed) 

 that one young collector was seen to have a cigar bo's, full of these larvse. Of course 

 he did not rear them all, or indeed I think ani/ of them, for these delicate larvse 

 ■would be quite unable to recover from the effects of the sweating and suffocation 

 induced by such treatment. But those entomologists who were more humane in 

 their collecting, and more modest in their desires, reaped a very fair reward, and 

 many scores (possibly a few hundreds) of the beautiful moth were reared. The 

 larvfe seem to feed principally at night. In the earlier part of the day and in cool 

 weather they hide themselves among their food-plant, or in the great tufts of 

 marram-grass, but on hot sunny afternoons they creep out and sun themselves, es- 

 pecially loving to lie upon the hot bare sand, and revelling in the most intense heat 

 of the sun. Heat appears to be a necessity for them. As soon as the weather 

 became chilly, those which had not gone down became languid, and if exposed, soon 

 died, indeed, some larvre which were, as an experiment, exposed to a rather frosty 

 night, were found dead in the morning. 



It is very possible that we have in this the secret of the scarcity of the species 

 in this country, where its food is so abundant. I am assured that in the extensive 

 sweeps of sandy coast from Llandudno, North Wales, to Grange, in the north of 

 Lancashire, and even further, galii is to be found in the larva state, somewhere, 

 everi/ year. The food-plant is plentiful to within a short distance of high water 

 mark, and from the protection of the inland hills and the immediate iniluence of 

 the Gulf stream, all this coast enjoys an exceedingly mild climate, while the sand 

 suits the larva for assuming the pupa state. If, then, this species is constantly re- 

 sident here — and I saw specimens in Mr. Gi-egson's possession which he assured me 

 were reared from larvae found in 1889 — it is quite in accordance with what we know 

 of insect life, that in a specially favourable season the species should become com- 

 paratively common. 



I have hitherto been disposed to attribute the abundance of this species in 1888 

 to immigration ; but one's opinions should only be founded on facts, and must, of 

 course, be modified by them. When I heard, in 1888, that these larvse were being 

 found quite freely near Dover and near Liverpool, I expected to find them also in 

 Norfolk, and Mr. Atmore and I tramped over many miles of sandy coast in various 

 parts of that County without result. At the same time I wrote to the Rev. C. 

 Wilkinson who was then at Castlemartin, and induced him to search on tlie Pem- 

 brokeshire coast, but with no better result. 



Now, it has seemed difficult to understand how it could be that when ffalii was 



