198 



THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



should not be considered unworthy of notice. 

 We allude to the " olla podriia" of insects 

 that fall into the receptacle employed. It is 

 true that entomologists should not be thin- 

 skinned, but it is also advisable that the 

 pleasantest modes of working be adopted 

 where they are effective. On a hot summer's 

 day, to be covered with various spiders, flies, 

 aphides, earwigs, &c., &c., is by no means 

 a pleasant adjunct to the sport of larva- 

 hunting. 



Finally, let us say that we have been much 

 amused by reading the various methods ad- 

 vised by entomological writers in their 

 works. One recommends the use of a large 

 sheet, carried by two persons, into which 

 capacious receptacle a third beats the foliage 

 of high trees, &c. Another has advocated 

 the placing of pieces of flannel in hedges, 

 amongst the bushes, and on the low herbage 

 in the evening, assuring his readers that 

 these "traps" will be found tenanted by 

 larvse in the morning. Another writer, with 

 more reason, recommends the use of a lan- 

 tern, and a noctural search, for the night- 

 feeding larvae of NocUia. This we have 

 found very successful. Space prevents us 

 entering more fully into this subject, but 

 we hope that the few hints offered may at 

 least serve to stimulate the entomological 

 readers to renewed perseverance in larva- 

 hunting during the season now commenced. 

 — E. J. S. Clifford. 



A DAY'S HOLIDAY AT 

 LLANGOLLEN. 



By Dr. John W. Ellis. 

 A promise of a fine day, and the fact of 

 my not having had a holiday out of town 

 for eighteen months, induced me to join my 

 friend, Mr. J. H. Smedley, in a day's excur- 

 sion to Llangollen on Good Friday last 

 (April 7th), our principal object being the 

 addition to our collections of some of the 

 mountain coleoptera. We left Birkenhead 

 by a Great Western excursion at 7.20 a.m., 



arriving at our destination about 9.20. The 

 grey early morning gave promise of a fine 

 day, and our expectations were fully realized 

 and our spirits cheered (although the buoy- 

 ancy derived from the fresh country air was 

 sufficient for the latter) by one of the most 

 glorious days ever seen in our changeable 

 climate. Although for the last fortnight the 

 weather has been cold and unpropitious, 

 many spring flowers were noticed on the 

 railway banks as we journeyed onwards ; 

 among them, I remember, primroses and 

 violets in abundance, anemone nemorosa, 

 broom, marsh marigold [Caltha pahistris), 

 and even early-flowering specimens of cow- 

 slip and " ox-eye " daisy. 



On arriving at Llangollen we rejected the 

 offers of hot water and " Sing you a song, 

 sir, Welsh or English, for a halfpenny," and 

 struck off for our intended collecting ground, 

 viz., the mountains on the west of the 

 Ruthin Road, beyond Valle Crucis Abbey. 

 We had hardly walked a hundred yards 

 along the road when my friend bottled the 

 first beetle, Chrysoniela staphylea, which was 

 enjoying the sunshine on the bare ground. 

 A short distance along the road, past the 

 slate Vv'harf on the canal bank, we turned up 

 two fine larvae of Cossus lignipevda lying 

 beneath a stone, although a rotten tree at a 

 short distance showed plainly where this 

 species had been at work. Mr. Smedley 

 found a couple of Gcyptis compressus under a 

 stone close by. I noticed the two common 

 dead-nettles, Lamium purpuvemn and L, album, 

 very common in the hedges by the road, and 

 also was pleased at seeing the cuckoo-pint 

 {Arum maciUatum) in abundance in similar 

 situations. This is a plant which is so ex- 

 tremely local in our Liverpool neighbour- 

 hood that I had never before seen it in 

 perfection. We commenced our ascent of 

 the mountains by turning up through a 

 farmyard and crossing two brooks which 

 rushed over their rocky beds on their road 

 to join one of the Dee tributaries, and in 



