1887.] 61 



Vlinders van Nederland, Micro-Lcpidoptern, p. 278, says : " May, 

 Juue, and then in August, not common," and at p. 277 he says : "The 

 insect flies in the early summer, and again in the after-summer. Two 

 generations." But I hope my friend Herr P. C. T. Snellen will excuse 

 me, when I confess that 1 am still very incre(luk)us about these two 

 broods. 



I come now to my own experience of this insect ; my six oldest 

 specimens were all taken prior to 1850, and four of them before 1848, 

 which was the first year when I labelled my captures. Hence, I have 

 no record whatever of the origin of these four. In 1848 I took one 

 specimen at West Wickham Wood, June 9th ; in 1849 I took one at 

 Torwood, near Larbert, Stirlingshire, June 5th. Thirty-five years 

 elapsed before I again met with the species, but, in 1884, I captured 

 a single specimen in a little wood at Pitlochry, Perthshire, June 27th, 

 this wood was of mixed growth — oak, birch, mountain ash, &c., with a 

 considerable variety of low plants. 



This summer, on the 10th June (a very bright hot day), I visited 

 that same wood at Pitlochry in the evening and found Tortrices freely 

 on the wing, especially Copwo ochraceana, Ancliylopera Mitterhacheriana, 

 and, above all, Lohesia permixtana ; all the three seemed partial to oak, 

 which I was well aware was the special food of Mitterhacheriana, and 

 I could not fail to notice whilst boxing one specimen of permixtana, I 

 should frequently see two or three others, or more, buzzing at the 

 oak-shoots (one always does see more insects when both hands are 

 fully engaged than at any other time), so that I might easily have 

 jumped to the conclusion that there was a distinct connection between 

 the oaks and permixtana. Mr. Barrett, in his " Notes on British 

 Tortrices," had already remarked that our permixtana seemed partial 

 to oak (Ent. Mo. Mag., xi, 62). 



However, I called to mind that Elacliista alhifrontella is very apt 

 to swarm on oak-shoots, and as we all know that its larva, however 

 many grasses it may eat, has nothing to do with oak, the swarming of 

 an imago on a ^\^nt proves nothing as to the food of the larva. 



I had not then taken notice of Herr Brischke's observation of the 

 larva on golden rod, but, if I am not mistaken, the Solidago does occur 

 in this wood at Pitlochry. Of the specimens of Lohesia 'permixtana I 

 captured that evening (a few were so worn that they were useless) I 

 set out nine, and hoped to have taken more on subsequent evenings, 

 but the next day we had a complete change of weather with high wind, 

 and few insects were on the move, and on the evening of the 12th, 

 though I did see a few permixtana flying at random (not buzzing on 

 the oak shoots) I failed to catch any. On the 13th June I left Pitlochry. 



Mouutefield, Lewishara : 



JaJy 7th, 1887. 



