PLUSIA FESTUC^ AND ITS SECOND BROOD. 115 



Collins's note to me on the subject is so interesting that I avail 

 myself of the privilege of giving it in extenso. He says : — "We 

 do take the second brood of Plitsia festucce at Warrington, as 

 well as the first one. In June last I found about half a dozen 

 webs containing pupae, and have long since [his letter is dated 

 Sept. 2iid, 1894] bred the moths from these, of course. I have 

 not had the time to search for the second brood, last August, or 

 even up to date, as I am aware it is not yet too late to go for it. 

 Like you, I take mine on the great sedge, bur-reeds, also on a 

 coarse ribbon-grass, and have actually found them feeding on 

 water plantain { Alls nut plantago), but never on yellow iris. I 

 have found cocoons repeatedly on water plantain, and on the 

 coarse grass referred to, growing in the middle and along the 

 sides of a little brooklet neai* Warrington. By the way, when 

 the cocoon is spun on the grass it is bad to detect. From the 

 nature of the locality we always fancy a dry season like last 

 year essential to their welfare; for in the wet seasons the streams 

 rise, overflow the banks, wash down the plants, and consequently 

 swill off and drown the larvae. However, yours may be obtained 

 from ponds where they would be less exposed to drowning, from 

 there being no current to bring down the plants. We always 

 find in a wet season that P. festucce is much scarcer than in a 

 dry one. I have for many years netted the June brood over 

 campion and bramble flowers." 



Following an observation of mine upon the habits of the 

 moth (Entom. xxvii. 243), Mr. J. E. K. Allen, of Bolton, con- 

 tributes (p. 270) an interesting note on the appearance of the 

 insect in Galway. There, in 1893, he took an imago May 28th, 

 and another on Sept. 20th. Obviously these were representatives 

 of first and second broods. 



Let us now consider the evidence which points to the limit of 

 the moth, at any rate in one locality, to a single brood. Mr. 

 Allen, in the note referred to, says : — *' This moth seems to vary 

 in its economy in different localities. At Bolton, where I have 

 taken it for many years, half-grown larvae are fouad in April, 

 and full-grown larvae up to the middle of June ; the food-plant is 

 almost always the yellow iris. The pupa is generally in a bend 

 of the iris leaf, about two inches from the point, and the moths 

 begin to emerge at the end of June. I do not think a second 

 brood occurs at Bolton ; I and others have looked for it in vain." 

 Mr. Kushton, of Thornbank, near Bolton, in a letter to me dated 

 Aug. 30th, 1894, says : — *'I am sorry to say that I know very 

 little of the life-history of P. festucce. I had three pupae. Two 

 emerged on July 4th, and the other on July 5th." Mr. Rushton, 

 in another letter dated Sept. 3rd, supplies me with a note by 

 Mr. J. Grime, of Bolton. Mr. Grime says: — '^ P. festucce occurs 

 in three localities about Bolton. In forward seasons I have 

 found the chrysalis by May 18th, but never earlier. It is in the 



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