1890] 



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waterway, and to facilitate their project, the original river will be filled 

 up, including this favourite locality ; however, Petasitis is not local, 

 and has a fairly wide range along the river side. I have taken it at 

 various places going in the direction of Manchester, but at no place so 

 common, as in the aforementioned district. — J. Collins, Warrington. 



Numeria pulveraria at Hartlepool. — It is a curious thing that one 

 cannot exhaust a district, even of the larger and commoner species. 

 After more than thirty years collecting in the woods, &c. in this im- 

 mediate neighbourhood, a year rarely passes but I meet with some- 

 thing new. On 26th May, I took, in Hezleden Dene, where I collect 

 regularly, a specimen of Numeria pulveraria for the first time, and the 

 next evening I took another. — John E. Robson, Hartlepool. 



Collecting at Campion Flowers. — June and July are especially 

 the months for collecting at Campion flowers. The Bladder Campion 

 (Silene inflata) is common in most of places, occurring on Railway sides, 

 hedge banks, and various waste places. It grows in large clumps or 

 patches, and as the sweet smell of the flowers is most powerful in the 

 evening, it is exceedingly attractive to Noctuse, which are easily cap- 

 tured as they fly about the flowers and feed on the secreted nectar. 

 Other plants of the genus are no doubt equally alluring, but as they 

 are either local, or grow more or less as single plants, they are not so 

 valuable to the collector. Perhaps the genus DiantJuzcia, the larvae of 

 which feed on this order of plants, are more attracted by the perfume 

 of these flowers than others, and the collector can rely on obtaining 

 in this way all the species of this genus that occur in his locality. But 

 all, or nearly all the Noctuae on the wing in June and July, visit the 

 flowers with more or less regularity, and I have taken a few species at 

 these flowers, that I have not obtained by other means, Plusia festucce for 

 instance, and Cucullia chamomillce . Here Heliothis marginata is a frequent 

 visitor, and I once met with its rarer brother Peltigera. Mamestra 

 albicolon is common in some years, and I have occasionally taken a 

 very pretty banded form with a light ground colour. Its rarer brother, 

 Abjecta, always a scarce insect, has fallen to my net once or twice at 

 these flowers, though it occurs more frequently at sugar. In sheltered 

 places, where the flowers are early, some of the Ttfniocamfa may be 



