130 



The Naturalist. 



side of the plant are often perfectly entire. Though most were on 

 the carrot, some were found eating with evident relish the common 

 Angelica sylvestris. 



Another very pretty larva, though belonging to a totally different 

 order, was that of Cidaria sagittata ; these we found on the seeds of 

 Thalictrum flavum, but, unlike Machaon, they required very close 

 searching for. Other larvae taken during our stay included fine Smerin- 

 thus ocellatus on shoots of willow ; the green and brown forms of the 

 beautiful and singular Ohoerocampa Elpenor'^ a G^ssus ligniperda 

 crawling on the inn floor, perhaps strayed from the trunk of one of 

 the fruit-trees in the garden ; Saturnia carpini ; Pterophorus micro- 

 dactylus in the stems of Eupatorium ; and others. 



Passing from larvae to the species taken in the imago state, the 

 list is much longer, as might be expected. Of the rarer species 

 we were very pleased to take five fine Orgyia coenosa ; three on the 

 night of the 26th July, and two more two or three days later. This 

 moth, though formerly abundant in the fens, is now exceedingly rare, 

 occurring in Britain only at Wicken, and there very sparingly. Last 

 year only two specimens were taken, we were told, and this season 

 only eight, five of which fell to my share, making the largest number 

 to one net for several years. We were very desirous of getting 

 Macrogaster arundinis also, but were unsuccessful, though two were 

 taken one night by a local collector at his lamp, at no great distance 

 from ours ; this of late years has been considered purely a Wicken 

 moth, until this season, when two were taken at Ranworth by Mr. 

 Fletcher. Another peculiarly Wicken species, and until Mr. Wheeler's 

 lamp turned it up a few years ago, hardly known in Britain, is Nascia 

 cilialls. June is the proper month for the species, but on the night 

 of the 26th July (the coenosa night), as we were coming off the fen, 

 one of the local collectors showed us a specimen he had taken at his 

 lamp, remarking at the time that he had never known it to occur so 

 late. Judge of our surprise, then, next morning, when Mr. Daltry 

 turned out his boxes, to find that he also had unknowingly taken a 

 specimen, and a fair one too. These were the only two secured during 

 our stay, though we worked hard afterwards to get another. Another 

 rare species we took rather commonly was Tortrix dumetana. It flew 

 just at dusk, and was then easily netted ; later it came to the sugared 

 flowers, and also to the lamps. 



And now for the common species, and we will run through them 

 more rapidly, as to particularise each at length would take up too 

 much time, and is moreover unnecessary. Gonepteryx rhamni and 



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