NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 273 



Trochilium crabroniformis, Leivin. — Widely spread and 

 abundant in many parts of Ireland, infesting poplar, willow, 

 sallow, and osiers. Knockbreda, Co. Down (Bw.); Derry; 

 near Monaghan ; Cromlyn, Westmeath {Mrs. B.); Howth, abun- 

 dant ; in the suburbs of Dublin (Rathmines and Drumcondra) 

 and Kingstown, abundant ; Malahide (A^.) ; at Armagh and 

 Castledermot, Co. Kildare {J.). 



Sesia scoliiformis, Bork. — Cromaglaun Glen, Killarney, is 

 the locality where Mr. Birchall found birch trees infested, he 

 believed, with this species, but he did not get the imago. I also 

 noticed similar traces in the same neighbourhood in 1885, but 

 saw no imagines. 



Sesia tipuliformis, Clerck. — Common near Dublin, and else- 

 where found in Ireland. Derry (C). I have reason to believe it 

 is widely distributed, but it seems to have been overlooked by 

 collectors. 



Sesia myopiformis, Bork. — "Dublin and Cork" (B.). 



Sesia culiciformis, L. — Killarney (B.). — The Eev. Joseph 

 Greene records it as Irish, on the authority of Mr. A. H. 

 Haliday. I have found birch logs bored and empty pupae near 

 Ballinasloe. Mr. Milne, of Derry, reports traces of a similar 

 nature in his neighbourhood. 



Sesia musciformis, Vieiv. —Mr. Gregson is said to have taken 

 a specimen at Howth. I found it on the Saltee Islands, Co. 

 Wexford, where, however, it was scarce. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Butterflies and Colour. — Bearing on the subject of butterflies 

 being attracted to flowers or objects of a colour resembling their own, I 

 recently stumbled upon a note, by Mr. E. C. Lefroy, in ' Science Gossip ' 

 (1871, p. 258), of which the following is an extract: — "When reading 

 some papers on butterflies by the Rev. J. Johns, in a monthly serial, I 

 came across a paragraph in which the writer said that P. hrassica and other 

 white butterflies had a predilection for settling on flowers of the same colour 

 as themselves, and although I was at first inclined to doubt the statement, 

 T. resolved to watch for myself. The result was that not only am I firmly 

 convinced that the whites have a preference for white flowers, but, going 

 further than this, I have noticed that a small bed of Nemophila had such 

 attractions for the blues as to prevent them settling on other flowers." — 

 H. G. Knaggs ; Camden Road, August 7. 



Note on the Larva of Digranura vinula. — In reply to Mr. Turner's 

 query concerning the larval ecdyses of Dicranura vinula {ante, p. 248), I 

 believe that the number of ecdyses depends largely upon the food. I have 

 reared a good many broods of this moth, and have found that black poplar 



ENTOM. SEPT., 1893. 2 B 



