128 



! October, 



Fwriher notes on Flusia ni. — Having captnred a specimen of Plusia fesUiC(JB on 

 the evening of the 13th inst., on flowers of red valerian, in my garden, I again, 

 just at dusk on the evening of the 14th, was on the watch for others of the same 

 species. There were P. gamma, P. chrysitist and another festuccB, which I captured ; 

 and the Plxisia sent to you through our friend Mr. Hellins was captured that same 

 evening. The flight offestucce is so diflerent from that of gamma, that by carefully 

 watching I can generally distinguish them on the wing, and I captured the stranger, 

 taking it to be a,festncce; for it was then too dark to make out what it really was. 



I have since captured and slaughtered some scores of gamma, hoping to meet 

 with another stranger, but no other has yet turned up. 



P. festucce must this year have been double-brooded, as I had two in my garden 

 in June. — H. D'Orville, Alphington, pear Exeter, August 25t/i. 



Occurrence of Dicrorampha flavidorsana, Knaggs, near Exeter. — Two years ago 

 I met with a specimen of the Dicrorampha sent to you by Mr. Hellins, and placed 

 it in my cabinet with Petiverella, marked doubtful. 



On the 19th June, this year, I beat from the Artemisia absinthium, many 

 plants of which I have in my garden to attract Oucullia ahsinthii, the same insect, 

 and finding it to differ so much from alpinana and Petiverella, thought it was, and 

 find it to be, D. flavidorsana, Knaggs. 



As the species was taken by Mr. Meek, in August, and I took mine in June, I 

 should infer it to be double-brooded, and I am on the look-out for others, as I know 

 several moths escaped my net in June. — Id. 



Abundance of Sphinx convolvuli near Exeter. — I have not seen so many con- 

 volvuli since 1859, when I captured 17. Within the last ten days — that is, from 

 the 15th to the present — I have captured 17, good and bad. They are three weeks 

 earlier than in 1859. — Id. 



Sphinx convolvuli at Marlborough. — Two specimens have been taken here ; one 

 on the 25th August, on a door in the town, the other about the 31st of August, at 

 Tottenham House. — T. A. Preston, Marlborough College, September 9th, 1868. 



Deilephila lineata at Marlborough. — Two children who were playing in a 

 stubble-field, about the 26th of August, found a specimen of D. lineata. They 

 took it to a bird-stuffer in the town, who added to the damage done to it by the 

 children by cutting off the tail and stuflfing some cotton into the body. Under these 

 circumstances the specimen is not in very good condition. — Ibid. 



Catocala fraxini at Ipswich. — Mr. J. Balding, of 5, Lyme Koad, Ipswich, 

 writes:— Sir, — I thought perhaps it might be interesting to some of your ento- 

 mological readers to know that a specimen of Catocala fraxini w&s captured on 

 Saturday last at the back of my house.— Extracted from the " Daily News" 26th 

 Augiist. 



Occurrerice of Catocala fraxini and other rarities in Cheshire. — The season of 

 1868 will be remembered as a remarkably forward one— a season which rendered 

 calendars, diaries, &c., comparatively useless, since nearly all insects came out bo- 



