CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 65 



should never be wantonly killed by the horticulturist, ;is they destroy 

 an enormous quantity of snails, for cleaning itself from the slime of 

 which the larva is furnished with a little brush at the apex of the 

 abdomen. Another curious and not generally known facu is that this 

 species is luminous throughout all its stages, both egg and pupa, as 

 well as larva and perfect female, giving otf their phosphorescent light ; 

 occasionally also a faint glimmer may be detected in the male. The 

 female may easily be distinguished from the larva by its obvious 

 antennae and the absence of lateral yellow marks on each segment of 

 its body. — Claude Morley ; Ipswich. 



CAPTUEES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



Hawk-Moths in East Kent in 1895. — During the past year several 

 of the hawk-moths have been very plentiful near Wye, in Kent. During 

 June numbers of Chcerocampa porcellus could be taken along the foot of the 

 North Downs near Wye, especially on the old racecourse. They were 

 mostly seen at rest on bedstraw and on grass. I was unable, however, to 

 find any larvae at the end of the summer. Several C. elpenor were also taken 

 along the banks of the Stour, on the large willow-herb, near Ashford, and 

 one at Wye. In October two full-fed larvae (both the dark type) of Sphinx 

 convolvuli were brought me, found in some allotment gardens on potatoes. 

 On examination of the ground I found, however, any amount of convolvulus 

 growing amongst the tubers. Several others, the labourers told me, had 

 been found, some quite green ; whether these were the green form of 

 S. convolvuli or Acherontia atropos larvae I cannot say. Smerinthus ocellatus 

 was very abundant, in the larval state, on osiers between here and Ashford, 

 and S. tilm and S.populi plentiful generally in the district. Sphinx ligustri 

 I have seen little of, only two larvae having been observed, but I am told it 

 is usually common in this neighbourhood. — Fred. V. Theobald ; Wye 

 Court, Kent, Jan. 1896. 



Vanessa antiopa at Epsom. — There have been so few records of the 

 occurrence of this grand insect in England of late years that the following 

 may prove interesting to the readers of the * Entomologist.' A lady who 

 lives in Epsom found, on Dec. 19th, a butterfly sitting on the ashes in the 

 fireplace of one of her rooms. When she first saw it she mistook it for a 

 cinder, and it seems most wonderful that the insect should have chosen a 

 resting-place so very similar in colouring to the under-surface of its own 

 wings. I saw the butterfly on Dec. 20th, and found it to be a Cambervvell 

 Beauty in fairly good condition. There can be little doubt that it entered 

 the chimney in which it was possibly attempting to hybernate. The outer 

 parts of the wings are of a whitish colour, then followed by a band of black 

 containing blue spots, and inside this band to the body is a rich chocolate- 

 brown. — Edmund H. Lancaster; White Cottage, Epsom. 



Eupithecia albipunctata bred in December. — Upon examining 

 some of my breeding-cages, on Dec. 19th, I was surprised to find a fine 

 freshly-emerged specimen of this moth. The cages are kept in an open 

 shed facing the east, and there had been some sharp frosts on the 8th, 9Lhi 

 and 10th of the month. In another cage was a dead Hadena suasa which 



