3064 Insects, 



evening by some capture of importance ; but when I say that I spent a great portion 

 of the evening in running after Eupa3cilia angustana, T shall surely be thought to be 

 joking, but so it is : I caught thirteen of this valuable insect the first evening, and 

 before I left Chudleigh I had collected about fifty. If 1 am asked why I spent my 

 time in catching so common an insect which nobody wanted, I must even confess, 

 that I took it for something else, and thought I was bagging the rare ambiguella. I 

 had been at Wickham the previous week, where angustana ordinarily swarms and I 

 had seen none, and here in a strange place I found something like angustana, but 

 already wasted. Endorea pyralella was very plentiful in the old quarry, and I found 

 several Pterophorus trigonodactylus ; they sat chiefly among Tussilago farfara : does 

 the larva feed on that plant ? 



When standing on the top of the rocks my eyes looked longingly on a meadow 

 which skirted their base, and which was bordered on one side by the little stream, 

 the banks of which were fringed with a plantation of alders ; here surely was choice 

 ground for an explorer : accordingly the following afternoon I visited it, but not with 

 much success. Two scutulana, two Cirsiana, one sequana and two fibulella, being 

 my best captures, if I except three specimens of a dull ochreous, almost denuded in- 

 sect ; what this insect could be, puzzled me for a long while ; at length I guessed it 

 might be Roslerstammia granitella, which I consider I ultimately proved by breeding 

 that species from larvae found mining the leaves of the Inula dysenterica in that 

 meadow. I afterwards found that these extremely wasted granitella were no rarity, 

 which is remarkable, as when a species is so over that it becomes extremely wasted, it 

 generally becomes very scarce. 



My second evening was devoted to further examination of the contents of the old 

 quarry, and this time I had better success, taking three Elachista gibbiferella, Z. (ba- 

 sipallidella, Sta. Cat.), two decorella, two Grapholita obtusana, and several of those 

 puzzling Tortrices, which Haworth in his simplicity called simpliciana. (The num- 

 ber of these species, and their correct names and synonymy would be a nice subject 

 for a monograph : will any one try it ?) 



The following morning, the 10th, I visited Great Haldon, but though the day was 

 very bright, in that elevated situation there was too much wind, and Thecla Rubi and 

 (Ecophora grandipennis were my sole captures ; in a small wood adjoining the moor, 

 which ought to have abounded in good things, I obtained two Micropteryx Allionella, 

 and one Eupcecilia maculosana : in the afternoon I revisited the meadow, and by 

 sweeping on a dry flowery bank, obtained singularly enough in two successive strokes 

 of my net, a Coleophora Alcyonipennella and a C. spissicornis, and more oddly still, 

 though I tried hard that afternoon, and other afternoons, I found no more of either. 

 In a moist corner of the meadow I took a single specimen of Adela rufimetrella, of 

 course much wasted, the middle of May being its proper period. (This insect should 

 frequent the flowers of Cardamine pratensis). 



In the evening I again explored the old quarry and captured three more Grapho- 

 lita obtusana, one Microptevyx rubrifasciella, wasted, two Elachista decorella, one 

 gibbiferella, and Lithocolletis salicicolella and Spinolella. 



June 11th ; being desirous of a further supply of M. Allionella, I set off in the 

 heat of the day for the little wood at the edge of the moor, but found none ; a single 

 E. maculosana, and a worn Lithocolletis ernberizaepennella being my only captures ; 

 along the road-side I found several A. fibulella and M. Seppella on the flowers of 

 Veronica Chama:drys. In the afternoon I obtained by sweeping, in the old quarry, 



