THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Grammesia trilinea was amongst the earliest, followed by the Yellow Under- 

 wings Trypficena pronuba, T. orbona } T. interjecta, T.janthina, Cosmia affinis, 

 and C. affinis. Apamea oculea in wondrous variety. Noctua plecta, N. 

 c-nigrum, iV. /estiva, N. daklii, and all the Mianas. There were besides 

 both the Quakers, Red and Yellow-line, Orthosia lota and 0. macilenta, and 

 Xant/da cerago. Anchocelis pistacina was usually a pest. I am sure I could 

 have counted 50 one night at small patches of sugar, affording prime fun 

 for the earwigs, who carried them off in their powerful mandibles as a 

 11 bonne bouche " for supper. The two fine-looking Agrotis, A. suffusa and 

 saucia, were not uncommon. And some tipsy old Ladies (Mania maura), 

 in their sober black satins, contrasting sharply with the handsome Red 

 Under wings (Catocala nupta), were frequent visitors. But my great prize 

 at sugar was one evening a fine specimen of the excessively rare Leucania 

 albipuncta. 



And now a word or two about some of the larvse. About eight summers 

 ago, the elms surrounding the house, were swarming with the caterpillars of 

 the Large Tortoisehell butterfly (Vanessa poly chores). This caterpillar is 

 gregarious; upon one small branch which I cut off I counted as many as 40. 

 It is remarkable that during the years which supervened, I have never seen 

 another caterpillar. Nearly every season the larvae of the Eyed Hawk-moth 

 (Smerinthus ocellatus), are to be found upon the apple trees, and searching 

 for these a very unexpected discovery was once made, this being the grotesque 

 larva of the Lobster moth (Stauropusfagi). The larva was feeding upon 

 apple, in the autumn of 1881, and upon this plant I reared it, being re- 

 warded with a fine male moth, in the April of the following year. 



In the autumn of 1885, the larva of that fine moth, Acherontia atropos — 

 the Death's Head — were unusually abundant, and several caterpillars, as well 

 as the pupa, were met with in the garden. The larvee were feeding upon 

 potatoes. Last season not a single caterpillar was detected, neither have 

 there been any (or at least but one here and there), chronicled from other 

 parts of the country. It is noteworthy that very little is known of this grand 

 Sphinx. 



The ova of Bombyx neustria — the Lackey Moth — disposed in a regular 

 manner, like a necklace round the twigs of apple and other trees, and the 

 larvse and cocoons under walls, are to be seen almost yearly in abundance. 



Of course these notes are but fragmentary. They do not pretend to be 

 a record of all the species observed, but they will serve to show what a fair 

 collection may be formed from, and what pleasure may be derived from the 

 study of "The Lepidoptera of a Garden." 



