THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 425 



that numbers must have perished by other means ; yet, 

 nevertheless, the moths were common, and I observed them 

 continuously from about June 20th to the end of August. (I 

 hope no one will accuse me of helping to exterminate the 

 species, for I must mention that I took as many larvae as I 

 had room for, to save them from death at the hands of the 

 gardener above mentioned, and set at liberty all the moths I 

 did not require for my own series. The larvae proved much 

 infested with ichneumons.) The curious part of the matter 

 was, that the larvae were almost exclusively attached to two 

 gooseberry-bushes, which are trained against the wall of the 

 house, and grow out of the gravel-walk, so that it must be, 1 

 should think, a difficult matter for them to bury. These two 

 bushes they entirely defoliated. There are several other 

 gooseberry- and currant-bushes in our garden, but there were 

 comparatively few larvae on them. — B. Lockyer ; 179, 

 Camden Road, London, N. TV., October 5, 1871. 



Moths and Sugar. — With reference to Mr. G. B. Corbin's 

 communication as to " moths and sugar," I may state that at 

 one time I was in. the habit of sugaring every fine evening 

 throughout the summer, in the woods, near here. I have 

 often kept females, captured by this means, in order to obtain 

 eggs, and have seldom found difficulty in obtaining them. 

 In fact, I have generally found that if the insect was left in a 

 pill-box for one evening eggs would be deposited. As to the 

 eggs when laid not producing larvae, I have, at this time, 

 part of a large brood of young larvae of Noctua festiva, 

 produced from eggs laid by two or three females of that 

 species, captured by me at the end of last June, at sugar. 

 And, besides these, I have, at various times, obtained eggs of 

 several other common Noctuae, taken at sugar, all of which 

 have hatched in due course. — B. Lockyer. 



Chelonia caja. — I had about two hundred eggs of C. caja 

 (from the same moth), which hatched about the end of July. 

 I am sorry I did not keep the exact date. They were all fed 

 on the same plant (dock), but 1 soon found about fifty grew 

 much faster than the others; these have continued increasing 

 in size, and some have begun to spin. If it is of any interest 

 to you, I will let you know if the chrysalids change this 

 year. — Miss E, Bethell ; 54, Lligh Street, Croydon, Septem^ 

 ber 11, 1871. 



