270 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S RECORD. 
dead thrift plants. As far as I could see healthy living plants 
were quite untouched. The simplest way of amassing a quantity of 
pupe is to pull up the dead thrift, and if traces are seen, 7.e., with a 
burrow in the stem, to put the whole piece into a bag without further 
examination. As the stuff is very light, a large bagful can be carried 
without difficulty. This insect likes bare rocks and not grassy slopes, 
and it prefers an almost perpendicular cliff. It only moves in bright 
sunshine, and it is of no use to try to take it, if there be any wind. 
On a still day it is very hard to see, and follow with the eye, as it flies 
very quickly and is in colour and size lke a gnat. I saw either the 
insect itself, or traces of its presence wherever the thrift was growing 
on the rocks. Sugaring up to the 9th on the sandhills produced only 
two Mamestra albicolon, one or two Heliothis marginatus and Leucania 
littoralis, with plenty of Hadena dentina, and on June 5th a Calo- 
campa exoleta, which, being supplied with cotton wool, laid during the 
night a large batch of ova and then died. ‘The ova were white but in 
two days became brown, and the larve emerged on the 19th. Some 
of them are now feeding on groundsel and sow-thistle. During the 
next week Ayrotis ripae came, but not in large numbers. The whole 
week only produced about twenty-five. Unlike its congeners— 
Peridroma saucia, P. suffusa, and others—it does not come freely to 
sugar in a wind, and when at all rough always comes to the sugar on 
the lee side of a post, and generally low down, but I found it came 
more freely to reed-heads sugared and stuck into the sand just above 
high water mark, below the line of vegetation, in the least windy spots. 
This: species comes to sugar all through the night if not too windy, 
and on one occasion I took four and saw two others between 1.80 a.m. 
and 2.0a.m. On other nights I obtained odd ones, several times, 
between midnight and 1 a.m. Mamestra albicolon, Leucania littoralis and 
Heliothis marginatus later appeared in larger numbers, especially the 
first. Two or three Hecatera serena appeared after the 16th. Red and 
white campion, and sea-campion flowers attracted Choerocampa porcellus 
in some numbers, and about thirty were bagged, Dianthoecta conspersa 
and Plusia festucae also came, but dusk work was on the whole disap- 
pointing. In one spot Mupithecia venosata of an unusually large size 
was common. On two or three evenings I visited the spot where I 
had taken Dianthoecia var. barrettii, but saw no sign of it, and 
altogether I took less than a dozen D. conspersa. The flowers seemed 
to be not nearly so attractive to Dianthcecias this year as last, and I 
think the want of heat prevented the flowers fully developing their 
scent. Ihave noticed in some very hot seasons the flowers of Azra 
caespitosa covered with insects, whilst in some other years not an 
insect seems to be attracted. One or perhaps two DL. conspersa, and 
one Choerocampa porcellus per evening were not very encouraging after 
former experiences. This only refers to the sea-campion on the rocks. 
In the meadows the red campion seemed very attractive, but chiefly to 
Choerocampa porcellus, Plusia jfestucae and Dianthoecia capsincola. 
During the first week of my visit, as there were very few other insects, 
T caught and examined large numbers of Polyommatus icarus which 
were swarming on the sandhills. I found no noteworthy variation in 
any male specimen, but a few of the females were remarkable, 
especially one which had both primaries and secondaries entirely bright 
blue, excepting a slender black band on the hind margin of the 
