THE YOUNG 



than usual, and it may be presumed I was 

 not disappointed. In February I noticed 

 several sprays of " palm " in full bloom, and 

 ere March had favoured us with a week of 

 warm sunshine, almost every shrub in the 

 district was laden with a most abundant 

 crop of beautifully yellow catkins. On the 

 first suitable night, regaled with the necessary 

 paraphernalia, I accordingly set out for the 

 nearest group of sallows. On the first 

 evening I laboured long and labouriously, 

 but got nothing but one very seedy Satellita 

 and several Progemmaria. Presuming that I 

 was too early for the freshly bred noctuse, I 

 laid aside my " chattels" and waited most 

 patiently for a few days. My next emergence 

 to the bloom was about a week later, and 

 this time and afterwards I was rewarded 

 with moderate returns for my trouble. The 

 results, however, were not quite equal to my 

 expectations, for instead of hundreds of 

 insects falling into the sheet, as some writers 

 tell us, I worked for nearly a month and my 

 whole captures did not reach a century, but 

 this I think is easily accounted for, by 

 remembering that the sallows, both male 

 and female, are very abundant and widely 

 distributed here, and so moths are more 

 thinly spread than if their carousing grounds 

 were more limited. Appended is the whole 

 of the lepidoptera I took at sallows in March 

 and April :— 



T.gothica, Rubvicosa,Cruda, Munda, Gracilis, 

 H. Progemmaria, Leucophearia, Rupicapraria, 

 A . ascularia, A . badiata, S. Illunaria, S. satellita, 

 C. vaccinni and V. Io. I noticed that " bats" 

 too were most abundant about the shrubs, 

 of course they were after the insects, not 

 the nectar. — William P. Ellis, Enfield 

 Chase, Middlesex. 



BOTANY. 



Scarlet Fungi. — The enclosed beautiful 

 scarlet, cup-shaped fungus is found in damp 

 woody places in Devonshire, a favourite 



NATURALIST 143 



locality being Chambercombe Wood, near 

 Ilfracombe. They are rather scarce, but 

 may be found on the dead wood and attach- 

 ed to decayed twigs, often hidden by moss 

 and fallen leaves. Please say what the fun- 

 gus is. — M. C. Henderson. 



The scarlet fungus is Peziza coccinea. It is 

 recorded from Shropshire, Herefordshire, 

 Wilts, Kent, and Yorkshire ; I have also 

 seen it here (Durham), but not often. 

 There are Pezizas of almost all colours, 

 generally very brilliant. — J. E. R. 



REPLIES. 



Larvae of G. ilicifolia. — In the first 

 volume of the Entomologists' Monthly Mag- 

 azine, p. 121, I find the following descrip- 

 tion of this larva, which will perhaps answer 

 Miss Prescott-Decie's purpose better than 

 that quoted from Stainton's Manual. 



"Length i" 9"'. Head and body hairy 

 Cream-coloured, dusted with black. Hairs 

 on back dark, short ; on sides in long, white 

 fascicles (a few darker interspersed) curving 

 downwards. Head pale drab, the black 

 atoms on it in longitudinal bands. On the 

 second segment, a reddish blotch, bordered 

 with black atoms; a series of markings 

 something like the ace of clubs down the 

 centre of the back, embracing the dorsal 

 line, formed of thicker black atoms, blackest 

 on the fourth segment, into which run lateral 

 stripes of black atoms, from each black 

 spiracle directed backwards. An indistinct 

 spiracular line of black atoms. Legs red- 

 dish with black spots ; claspers the colour 

 of the body, with a black stripe on the upper 

 surface, orange underneath. Along the vent- 

 ral line a chain of black spots, very large 

 and conspicuous, from the commencement 

 of the claspers to the anal segment, gradu- 

 ally smaller towards the head." 



This larva was sickly when taken, but the 



