THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



215 



be produced from the colour of the peaty soil, but my opinion is that it is 

 the wet, not the soil. Here we have Warringtonettus (which are like very 

 dark perlellus), occurring on wet moss land, and perlellus taken from the wet 

 river bank, being very dark and almost approaching Warringtonettus, though 

 the nature of the soil is entirely different. 



Along the bank or wall of the river were large quantities of thistles and 

 nettles, but butterflies were exceedingly scarce. I saw one large batch of 

 Van9ssa lo larvae, and urticm was not uncommon on nettles. I could not 

 detect any cardui on the thistles, but was, perhaps, a trifle early. Satyrus 

 janira and pamphilus were common, and occasionally a hybemated urtica ; 

 but these were all the Diurni I saw, except two Hesperia sylvanus, which I 

 took in a lane. I believe I was a month too early for butterflies, as Mr. 

 Eope had taken so many of our British species in the locality. 



The poplars were terribly infested with the larvse of Se&ia apiformis, but 

 although I made a point of walking round the trees in the early morning, I 

 did not succeed in taking any imagines. Cossns ligniperda was also in the 

 willow and poplar trees, the strong odour quickly acting as a guide to the 

 infected trees ; but I did not find any, my nearest approach was one night as 

 the odour was very strong in a lane, I lighted my lantern, and was led to a 

 tree some twenty yards off, and as it was so strong made sure of a catch, but 

 all I found was the empty pupa case. Fidonia joiniaria occurred in the fir 

 woods, and was the usual southern variety, with dusky yellow blotches on 

 the wings. I was sorry I was not able to catch a female, as I should like to 

 have seen the southern form. We seem to take both varieties of this sex 

 here. In the same plantation, Mr. Rope had taken Nolo, cristulalis, a few 

 weeks before, sitting on the fir trees. 



The collecting during the day was not much, but the great time was when 

 evening came on, then the four Acidalias — Incanaria, Bisetata, Osseata, and 

 Scutulata, began to fly in hundreds, the difficulty was to see which of the 

 game was worth taking. There might have been other species among them, 

 but these four were the only ones I saw. 



Along one hedge, by what was called " The Eudder Covey," (in plain Eng- 

 lish The Further Covey), I succeeded in taking a specimen of Lithosia com- 

 fllamla, which, from its lovely condition seemed just coming out. As I left I 

 also took Scqpula lutealis, Plusia iota, and chrysitis, flying over the brambles. 

 Inside the " Eudder Covey," Scopula olivalis and Lomaspilis marginaia were 

 perfect pests, flying up every moment. Hepialus heclus was also there, with 

 its soft monotonous whirl. Beating the underwood, after putting on our 

 sugar, was decidedly paying ; for we would take the most beautiful specimens 

 of Metrocanipa margaritaria, besides odd specimens of Melanippe monlanata, 



