NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 191 



to attack another with wide open mandibles, and on reaching it 

 killed and devoured it. The same thing happened with another 

 brood of the same. The remainder of the first lot pupated on 

 July 8th and 9th ; those of the second are still feeding but will soon, 

 I think, spin up. Has cannibalism been known to occur before 

 with this species?— L. H. Bond; The Cottage, Welby Gardens, 

 Grantham, July 13th, 1922. 



A Note on Heliconisa pagenstecheri (Saturnid^e). — 

 (Extracted from letters from F. B. Hinchliff, Estancia " Los 

 Flamencos," Sancti Spiritu, F.C.C.A. Argentina. March 1st, 1922.) 

 " For the last thirty years I have occasionally seen what I always 

 thought was a kind of apollo owing to its flight and transparency of 

 wings. I have seen three or four specimens only. The flight is a floppy 

 and irregular one— something like a big white or swallowtail, a 

 distinct butterfly flight — and they very rarely alight. I only saw two 

 alight — wings closed like a moth (Noctua), the female with wings 

 closed like a 'drinker' moth. They only fly by day for a short 

 period. I found them at the best between 2 and 4 p.m., and when 

 I rode up to the house to get some more papers and got back to the 

 hunting-grounds at 4.45 they had all gone to roost. I could have 

 sworn when I saw them on the wing that they were butterflies, and 

 was quite nonplussed when I saw them on the grass with wings posed 

 like moths. I caught one female and one male in the act of mating 

 — otherwise I should never have believed that they were male and 

 female. An interesting feature about these Argentine specimens is 

 that to-day once the moth settled in the dead grass it was impossible 

 to put it up again, evidently it crawled down into the masses of dead 

 grass and there it roosted until the next afternoon. The grasses 

 where I caught it were about 3 to 4 ft. deep. The males settled very 

 occasionally on the dead grass, which, being straw colour, acted as a 

 good ' camouflage,' and once they pitched they were not to be put 

 up again. I marked one specimen down and never put him up, and to 

 find him was like looking for a needle in a bundle of hay. Although 

 the males fly with a floppy flight they go very quickly — though appar- 

 ently lazily. Having discovered their breeding-ground (they feed on 

 coarse grass about 3 to 4 ft. high) I can catch any quantity next 

 year if required. — This afternoon, 3 p.m. there must have have been 

 300 to 400 males on the wing in 20 acres of pasture, and having noted 

 the date I will be ready for them next year. Personally I should 

 never have thought that the butterfly-looking specimens were 

 moths, as in the sun they looked as if their wings were made of silver, 

 or glass, or celluloid, and the sun shining on the wings made them 

 flash. The caterpillars evidently feed on grass, and I shall keep that 

 island [on which the moth occurred] as a sanctuary of the moth. I 

 found it useless running or trying to run after them in the tall 

 growth so I simply waited until one flew near me, when 1 made a 

 dash at it. Of course I missed quantities, as they are very quick and 

 dodging, and I only had the small folding net you sent me. The 

 female never attempted to fly — too heavy in body." 



In a letter dated April 18th, 1922, he writes : " I wonder what 

 they (these moths) feed on, as they never once pitched on a llower, 

 though there were lots of big thistles in full bloom all over the place. 



