THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



179 



■holes could bo neatly cut in the same 

 Iwny as they are cut for photograph 

 ■mounts, or small ones punched with a 

 ■joiner's gouge. 



NOTES, CAPTURES, &C. 



Rearing O. Potatoria. — Daring the last 

 two years I have reared a great number of 

 the larva 1 of Odoncstis potatoria, and always 

 found that they preferred rough grass, such 

 as Triticum repens, the Couch Grass, (Dactylis 

 ftomerata), the Cocksfoot Grass, &c. What 

 plant does your correspondent. Mr. H. Kerry 

 Harwich, mean by the Common Reed? — 

 Robekt Brown, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. 



A Productive Bex tl. Trap. — Last autumn 

 I found two or three common Carabid.p in 

 an area in front of my cellar windows, which 

 is usually pretty full of dead leaves. This 

 was nothing remarkable, but still I thought I 

 would look again, and my various searches 

 were rewarded with half a dozen specimens 

 of that lovely insect Leistus spini'oarbis. The 

 other day I had another search, and found it 

 so productive that I have thrown leaves into 

 several corners and sheltered places, looking 

 them over every day. The principal cap- 

 tures are Carabidae, such as the Lcistits afore- 

 said, genus Carabus, and genus Pterostichits. 

 There are also several species of Staphy linidc?, 

 notably Ocypus caprnus, Sucliinus subterraneus, 

 and several Philonthi. I think it would be 

 well worth the trouble if your coleopteris 

 and readers were to try this plan, which has 

 already (in less than a week) added half a 

 dozen species to my collection.- H. Bedford 

 Pim, Upper Norwood. 



NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE 

 NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB 



AND 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



We have again received the Report of this 

 Society, a volume of over 100 pages of reports, 

 papers, and accounts of excursions of the 

 Club. There have been seven of theseduring 



, 1879, the accounts of which are mostly archae- 

 ological and historical. The sectional re- 

 ports are only two — one on Geology and one 

 on Entomology, from the pen of the Secre- 

 tary, the Rev. S. W. Daltry. Seven species 

 of Lepidoptera were added to the Stafford- 

 shire list during 1879, which there, as else- 

 1 where, was noted for its cold, cheerless, 

 sunless summer, the absence of common 

 Butterflies, and the unusual abundance of 

 the Tainted Lady (P. carduij. Several 

 rarities are also recorded — A. alni, P. festuctf, 

 and Interrogationis. and others. The evening 

 meetings are held alternately at the chief 

 towns in the district, an excellent plan for 

 extending the. influence of the Club. The 

 members in the various towns take the oppor- 

 tunity of these gatherings to exhibit whatever 

 in their collections appears to be of special 

 [ interest, and after the routine business papers 

 I on various subjects are read. At the first 

 j meeting at Hanley record was made of the 

 finding of the nest (with two eggs) of the 

 Stormy Petrel, near the Trent, at Weston ; 

 and also of two Swallows being seen at 

 Madeley on the 28th March (79), a fact which 

 was said " supported the theory that the 

 migration of Swallows from this country was 

 not universal." At the February meeting at 

 Newcastle, among the flowers shown was one 

 " of the Crocus type," blooming six months 

 after date. Probably this was Colchicum 

 autumnalc, the spring blooming of which was 

 noted in No. 28 of our first volume, in an in- 

 teresting paper by Mrs. Hutchinson, 

 of Leominster. Among the papers which 

 were read was a very interesting 

 one, on the methods by which, at one 

 stage or other of their existence, the 

 Lepidoptera seek to preserve themselves from 

 attack. The paper, which is worth quoting 

 in cxtenso, speaks of the manner in which the 

 egg is deposited for safety, and to be near the 

 food of the young larva ; of the manner in 

 which some larvae conceal themselves, while 

 others escape notice by their resemblance to 

 a twig of the food plant ; of the concealment 



