iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



5 



Small ones were readily swept off the stems and capsules of Silene 

 otites, but to obtain large and nearly full fed ones, another plan had to 

 be adopted, the "wrinkle" for which we were indebted to Mr. 

 Houghton. The method was to look for a stem of Silene on which 

 the seed capsules (which are very small in vS. otites) were well eaten, 

 and then to scrape away the sandy earth at the bottom, when a fat 

 larva would very often be found coiled at rest, waiting for evening to 

 make the next ascent of the stem for his dinner. During the search 

 for irregularis some half-dozen of the pretty larvae of Heliothis dipsacea 

 were also found ; and sweeping among the surrounding herbage pro- 

 duced those of Hecatera sereiia rather commonly. Having secured some 

 fifty D. irregularis larvae, Houghton took us to another piece of w^aste 

 ground further on, where the Sisymbrium sophia grew pretty freely ; 

 and from it we were soon busy boxing full fed larvae of the local 

 Lithostege griseata. Almost every plant seemed to have some on, and 

 we had soon picked off a good supply. A short search was then 

 made on the Galium for larvae of Anticlea sinuata, but we were evidently 

 too early for it this season, as only one very small one was found, 

 which fed up rapidly into a beautiful creature ; this is indeed one of 

 the prettiest Geometer larvae I have ever seen. Lepidopterous 

 imagines were not much worked for. Satyrus titliomis, Lyccena alexis 

 and L. agestis were common; and a few Aspilates citravia were 

 disturbed with the sweeping; Pterophovus l^tus also got into the net 

 by the same means. Mr. McLachlan returned to London on 

 Saturday, the 15th, and on Monday I went over to Cambridge to join 

 Mr. Tutt and Mr. W. Farren in a hunt for Bryophila impar. We 

 searched the old walls well, but only three or four impar rewarded our 

 efforts, one only fallmg to my own take. A few B. perla, including 

 a fine dark form occurred with them. Getting tired of the slow work 

 we spent the afternoon looking over Mr. Farren's cabinet, until it was 

 time for Mr. Tutt to go on to London, and for me to return to Soham, 

 which is the railway station for Wicken. 



My own chief object how^ever, on this visit to Wicken, was to in- 

 vestigate the Neuroptera, Trichoptera and Orthoptera of the locality, 

 and it was on account of the first two of these orders that Mr. 

 McLachlan joined me for the several days. Our special search was 

 for Erotesis baltica, a trichopteron of which only some half-dozen speci- 

 mens have been taken in Britain as yet, and all, except one in the 

 Norfolk fens, at W^icken Fen. When Mr. McLachlan arrived, I had 

 one very fine specimen on my setting boards, taken soon after my ar- 

 rival at Wicken, and unfortunately all our efforts failed to turn up 

 another. Perhaps we were too late for the species, but quite as like- 

 ly, the very unfavourable weather w^e experienced accounted for our 



