1887.] 11 



remembered having received an example from Dr. Knaggs many years ago, but 

 Mr. Warren has now enabled us to add, for certain, Eupithecia innotata to the 

 British list ; it may be as well, perhaps, to add that the moth can scarcely be 

 separated from fraxiiiata, although the two larva; are distinct enough. — J. Hellins, 

 The Close, Exeter j March Ist, 1887. 



Odour observable in males of Pieris napi. — I read with interest the notes on the 

 odour emitted by Ilepialus hectus, and on looking through some back volumes of the 

 Magazine, I find a note by my father (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xix, p. 236), in which he 

 says that I discovered Pieris rapce to be scented. I was not aware of this note, or 

 would have cori'ected an error therein. About twelve years ago I was staying at 

 Nash, near Pembroke, and one day caught a male Pieris napi in my fingers, and at 

 once discovered a strong scent about it, very like sweet scented verbena. Since then 

 I have, every year, been accustomed to catch this butterfly for the sake of the scent, 

 but I never found a P. rapes that had any, though I have tried many, nor is there 

 any in the female P. napi that I am aware of. The scent is very similar to that 

 emitted by many species of Nomada, Prosopis, Psithyrus CApathus, N.), among 

 bees, and in all three cases it may be for the same purpose as in S. hectus. — 

 E. C. L. Peekins, Sopworth Eectory, Chippenham : March \st, 1887- 



The flight and pairing of Sepialushumuli. — I was very pleased with the interesting 

 observations upon this subject recorded in the December number of the Magazine by 

 Dr. Chapman, because they afPorded an explanation of a circumstance I had witnessed 

 during the previous summer, and which I had been quite at a loss to comprehend : 

 whilst passing a waste place by a road side, where several "ghosts" were indulging 

 ill their usual evening dances, a male dashed past me in a straight line — a flight so 

 unusual that it attracted my attention. It stopped about six or eight yards from 

 me, and about a foot from the ground, where I here were a few twigs. I thought a 

 spider's web had arrested its progress, as there was a slight flutter, a fall of about an 

 inch, and one or two vibrations, as if swinging in a web. I could hardly imagine 

 that a web would be strong enough to stop so strong a flight, and I went up to it to 

 investigate. I then found that the moth was pendulous in cop. with a female which 

 was sitting upon a twig. This made the matter seem still more surprising to me, as 

 the $ had darted to the twig at a distance so great that it could not have seen the ? 

 sitting upon it, and had gone past other (J s which were hovering a few yards off, and 

 apparently unconscious of the proximity of the ? . The whole circumstance seems 

 incapable of any explanation, except that which Dr. Chapman supplies— that the $ 

 had selected the i , and then flown to the twig, followed by it in hot haste. 



There is one other peculiarity about the flight of this species, which I have not 

 seen recorded, viz. : that when a (J is hovering over a particular spot if driven away 

 it will invariably return to the same place. The first occasion on which I noticed 

 this was one evening when mothing round a large mound. Each time I came to one 

 particular sj)ot there was a cJ -ff- hiimuli hovering : as it had been driven out of its place 

 to allow of my passing, I wondered whether it was the same or a different moth each 

 time, so having driven it away again I watched it, and saw that it was the same which 

 returned. I repeated the experiment, with the same result, so that that moth must 

 have returned five or six times that evening to its hovering place. I have also not 



