1800.] 



229 



a few larva? ou tlio plants. Thcso fed up very fast in tho hot weather, and, before 

 I expected it, had gone into pupa, but where I could never find out, nor did I sec 

 one of the moths of that brood ; indeed, I was too much occupied at that time of the 

 year to notice them much, but in August the plants were nearly smothered with 

 the webs of the second brood of larvas, which devoured all the leaves and even 

 attacked the seeds, and spun up (in confinement this time) just in time to escape 

 starvation, for their brethren at large, encouraged, I suppose, by the hot weather, 

 had utterly eaten up and destroyed the fine patches of plants upon which I had 

 reckoned for a fresh supply of food, and it was as much as I could do to find tho 

 dead stems. Unless they were full-fed, this will make them rare next year. — Id. 



Penthina capreana and other Lejpidoptera bred from sallow. — Mr. Machin 

 having given me some hints how to find the larvae of Penthina capreana, I spent 

 some time and pains in searching for them at the end of April. Being, however, 

 unable to find any, even in the places where the perfect insect had occurred, I went 

 to work and picked every rolled-up leaf and spun up shoot of sallow that I could 

 find, till I had a good quantity, which I put into flower-pots in a cool place, and 

 supplied fresh leaves when these di'ied up. 



From this lot of sallow shoots I bred, early in June, plenty of Hypermecia 

 angustana and Argyresthia pygmcBella, and a fine Ptycholoma Lecheana ; from the 

 20th to the end of the month, several Penthina capreana, Tortrix cratcegana, Spilo- 

 nota dealhana, Epunda viminalis, and Gelechia populella ; and in the middle of 

 July a dozen Semasia populana. The last appearance is Orthosia lota, just out, and 

 there are still a lot of pupae, which I expect will produce only Cheimatohia hrumata; 

 but this seems a considerable number of species, with a very wide range of appear- 

 ance, to be obtained from one lot of sallow shoots. — Id. 



Extraordinary variety of Cynthia cardui. — I beg to send you a description of a 

 fine variety of C. cardui, which I had the good fortune to capture on tho 8th 

 of August last, on the sand-hills at Wallasey. Fore-wings, base, and inner margin 

 yellowish-brown, much paler than in ordinary specimens ; disc yellowish-red, paler 

 in the discoidal cell, and quite free from dark markings, except a small blotch on 

 the costal nerve in tho cell, and an additional one from the sub-median nerve 

 hardly reaching the third inferior nerve : the apical portion of the wing and hind- 

 margin nearly normal. 



Hind-wings yellowish-red, paler near the hind-margin. The usual dark 

 markings are totally absent, except the marginal blotches, which are normal, and 

 the sub-marginal, which, in this specimen, are pyriform. The two nervures at the 

 upper margin are streaked with black, and between them is a white streak. Body 

 yellowish-brown . 



UricZers^cZe— Fore-wings. Base ashy-white ; centre of the discoidal cell red, 

 the remaining portion, bounded by a dark streak, pale ; disc reddish-ochreous, 

 inclining to red towards the base. There are no dark markings, except a small 

 blotch on the costal nerve in the discoidal cell. Apical portion of the wing and 

 hind-margin tawny, with patches of ashy and blackish scales, but the whole much 

 suffused, and with no distinct markings. 



