Insects. 



61 J5 



Ilfracombe specimen. This individual was captured in a mackeiel seine, off Hope's 

 Nose, near Torquay, about the middle of the day of the 15lh of June instant. — P. H, 

 Gosse ; Sandhurst^ Torquay^ June 17, 1858. 



Colias Edusa, Macroglossa Fuciformis and M. Bomhyliformis at Winchester. — 

 Having the day before yesterday (June 8th) captured a Clouded yellow, I thought that 

 an event so unusual might be worthy of insertion in the * Zoologist.' It was a fine 

 female, evidently just out from the chrysalis, as the spaces between the nervures were 

 in that limp condition which is observable in insects before they have become stiff by 

 flight. The specimen was seen alive by at least ten persons. On the same day I 

 had the good fortune to capture a specimen of Melitsea cinxia, one of Macroglossa 

 Fuciformis, three of M. Bomhyliformis and other good things. The two Macroglossae 

 seem very partial to the red campion {Lychnis dioica), for I took them all while 

 hovering over the flowers of that plant. The neighbourhood of Winchester is, I have 

 every reason to believe, rich in Lepidoptera. Of the sixty-five Ehopalocera, I have 

 myself taken forty-six species, and know of others having been taken. — /. S. Wesley; 

 The Close, Winchester, June 10, 1858. 



[The two British Colias have occurred repeatedly in the neighbourhood of 

 London during the past May and the present June: I believe them all to have 

 hybernated. — JEd."] 



Correction of an error. — I regret the readers of the 'Zoologist' should have been 

 misled by my giving Thecla Pruni as a native of South Wales, it should have been 

 T. Rubi (see Zool. 6100). I may also remark, I have no claim to the title of 

 " Reverend.' —i^oier^ Drane ; Cardiff, June 22, 1858. 



Occurrence of Clostera curtula in the Isle of Wight. — A few days ago I was informed 

 by a friend, who, though an F.G.S., &c.,is not versed in insect lore, that a very curious 

 object — a skin of a moth — was attached to the wall of his house. Not thinking it very 

 probable that the sudden hot weather had induced a moth to throw off his outer gar- 

 ment, but expecting to find it was the skin of a caterpillar, I vvent to the spot and 

 found it was a good specimen of Clostera curtula. Seeing it indicated in the 

 * Manual ' as scarce, and observing it is not mentioned in a local list, published a few 

 years since, I forward the capture in case it is thought worth recording, not being 

 myself a Lepidoplerist. It is now in the collection of a friend. — G, Guyon ; Ventnor, 

 Isle of Wight, May 31, 1858. 



Bankia Bankiana. — I have met with this hitherto rare little Noctua in considerable 

 numbers. It is extremely local, confined, so far as I have observed, to one little patch 

 of bog on the mountain side. It flies heavily towards afternoon, but only for a few 

 yards at once, settling on the stems of grass, after the fashion of a Crambus, and 

 is easily captured. — Edwin Eire hall ; Killarney, June 19, 1858. — From the ^ Intel- 

 ligencer J 



The Larva of Xanthia Aurago. — The larva of this pretty Noctua is now feeding 

 on the beech and the maple; but, as it seems, according to Guenee, to be but little 

 known, and is inaccurately described by Treiischke in Mr. Siainton s ' Manual,' I have 

 thought it might interest some of the readers to know what it is like, and how to find 



XVI. 2 P 



