IStjfi ] 



47 



Tho rare little Qaedius fascipes, in hay-stack refuse, and Sllusa, at its usual 

 Cosi-«6-baunts, have occurred to me near my house ; in the garden of which I have 

 captured Cercyon laterale and C. terminatum on the wing. Attagenus occasionally 

 exhibits itself indoors, with the elegant Ptinus sex-ptmctatus, which, alas ! exhibits 

 a fatal attachment to the bottoms of window-frames, thereby coming to grief. 



I have also found both sexes of Brachytarsus scahrosus in an old red thorn tree 

 in my gai'dcn, round which males of Smerinthus tilioe (there are contiguous limes) 

 are not rarely observed. I have also noticed this hawk-moth on Wimbledon 

 Common.— E. C. Rye, 7, Park Field, Putney, S.W., May, 1868. 



Capture of Dianthcecia cccsia. — In the beginning of June I visited tho Isle of 

 Man, in company with Mr. Birchall, for the purpose of getting this species. The 

 insect was rather scarce and very wild, as may be imagined from the fact that one 

 night we did not capture a specimen. We succeeded, however, in procuring suffi- 

 cient for our own wants, with some over. — D. Baxendale, Akroydon, Halifax, 

 June loth, 1S68. 



Capture of Dianthcecia Barrettii. — Mr. Birchall has been staying at Howth for 

 a few. days this week, and has succeeded in capturing D. Barrettii. On Tuesday 

 evening, when collecting in his company, I took a specimen of D. conspersa, which 

 has hitherto been placed in the Irish list only, on the authority of a single specimen 

 recorded by Mr. Bristow, supposed to have been taken near Belfast. — W. F. Kirby, 

 Dublin, June 18th, 1868. 



Lepidoptera bred and captured in the sprin<j of 18G8. — The present season 

 opened auspiciously with the capture of six males and one female of N. hispidaria 

 in Richmond Park. Unfortunately, however, all my efforts to establish a brood 

 proved unavailing. 



At the end of March I recovered my larvae of 0. fasceliria, D. olfuscata, and C. 

 Caja from their tiny outhouse, the remnant of the first-named numbering about a 

 score, of ohfuscata ten, of Caja two. More miserable invaHds than the fascelina I 

 never beheld. Wood-lice had worked fearful ravages, too, among the ohfuscata, 

 but what survived appeai-ed to be strong and well. The young budding shoots of 

 broom were partaken of with avidity by the latter — very languidly indeed by the 

 former. Time, however, worked wonders, and the end of May saw a dozen fat 

 fascelina ready to spin, while seven fine ohfuscata dived among the long moss in 

 their flower-pot and disappeared. Qaja, too, fed up rapaciously after the manner 

 of its kind. 



At West Wickham, in March, I captured a beautiful jiair of E. avellanella and 

 a series of T. crepuscularia ; while at Shirley my friend Mr. Stanley Leigh took 

 B. paHhenias and P. hippocastanaria. 



In April one of my breeding-cages yielded P. lacertula, T. opima, and B. hirtaria. 

 From Rannoch larvae I obtained fine specimens of N. ziczac ; and from larvae taken 

 nearer home, dromedarius. At the same time there emerged, beautiful among bred 

 Insects, A. myrtilli and A. porphyrea, and richly-coloured examples of A. ruhidata, 

 together with many S. ligitstn. Now, too, a goodly supply of ^E. alhipunctata, 

 adorned my setting-boards, shortly afterwards succeeded by centaureata, nanata, 

 exiguata, minutata, assimilata, and absynthiata. 



