288 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



anal segment only very slightly tinged with green; the wing 

 shades into whitish at the apex, and is semitransparent ; spiracles 

 are brown ; a dull brown medio-dorsal streak traverses the abdo- 

 men, and terminates in a dark spot on the seventh abdominal 

 segment. Such is the description when twelve days old. 



About three days before the emergence of the imago the 

 pupa begins to deepen in colour, gradually changing to a dark 

 leaden-grey, and finally the wings assume the colouring of the 

 imago, but of course of a paler hue ; the neuration and dark 

 marginal band of the wing in the male specimens show very 

 clearly. The pupa apparently is not attached by the anal hooks, 

 my specimens being merely suspended by a few strands of silk 

 spun around them to a stem of the plant close to the earth. The 

 first, a male, emerged on July 10th. 



TWO DAYS AT ABEESOCH. 

 By J. Aekle. 



In the midst of the continued drought and heat which will 

 mark the summer of 1893, I left Chester by an afternoon train, 

 June 9th, for Tan-y-Bwlch. There I was to enjoy, once more, 

 the hospitality of Mr. W. J. Kerr, and, on the morrow, journey 

 on with him to Abersoch. Our object was Zygcena pilosellce 

 {minos). All my efforts to obtain the insect from this locality 

 had failed, and I had therefore scanned — and endeavoured to 

 scan between the lines previous to my departure — all available 

 literature on the little burnet. The result was, granting the 

 early season would not be against us, that I began my long rail- 

 way ride in all confidence. And what a lovely ride — all along the 

 Dee valley, and beyond ! All through the Vale of Llangollen, 

 and up the steep to the river's source iu Bala Lake ; then higher 

 and higher until the train reached the top of the watershed at an 

 altitude of 2800 ft. above the sea; and, lastly, down into the Tan- 

 y-Bwlch Valley with which the Vale of Llangollen, lovely as it 

 is, absolutely sinks in comparison. The whole ride is through 

 greenest field, or shady, scented fir-wood ; by river pool with 

 coracle; or past crag and heath, where the early heather-bells 

 peep in through the carriage window. And there is much more 

 of floral ornament. Look across the river on the famous birch 

 grove, as the train stops at Berwyn in the Vale of Llangollen 1 

 Observe the tall foxgloves all along, and the fringe of tongue-fern 

 here and there at the foot of the debris ! The climax is reached 

 with the grand Vale of Tan-y-Bwlch, its meandering river, 

 natural oak woods, and all shut in by some of Cambria's highest 

 mountains. Here and there among these woods are open spaces 

 fringed with birch, and in one of these, in the Plas grounds, nfter 



