flofcs auL) Dunnes. 



Polecat, &c. — Can any reader of the Naturalist give instances 

 of the recent occurrences of the polecat or martin, or mention localities 

 for the blind worm or glowworm in Yorkshire ? — G. Roberts, Lofthoiise, 

 Wakefield. 



Laverna phragmiteUa in Yorkshire. — As will be seen from the report 

 of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union excursion on Whit-Monday, this 

 interesting species, hitherto unrecorded for the county, was collected by 

 Lord Walsingham, at Sherburn. The larvae were detected feeding 

 in the Typha heads growing near the railway station, and several heads 

 exhibited at the meeting of the Entomological Section seemed to be full 

 of them. His lordship says the insect ''is usually regarded as a fen species, 

 but is in fact, very widely distributed, occurring probably almost every- 

 where where Typha latifolia and T. angustifolia abound." He has "found 

 it certainly from Cannes, in the south of France to Yorkshire, throughout 

 the whole distance. The efiect it produces when feeding makes the seed 

 heads of Typha very conspicuous at a distance. Unaffected heads appear 

 solid or burst at one side and fall away ; affected heads are swollen and 

 matted together by the larvas, which attack the downy seed and bind it 

 together by their galleries and cocoons, preventing it from falling to the 

 ground when it becomes detached from the stem, and thus preserving it 

 as a conspicuous object after the unaffected heads have become mere 

 naked stems. " — G. T. Porritt. 



Insects AT Cambridge. — Mr. Mosley asked the question last March, 

 " Where are the Insects?" I might repeat the query now, and echo 

 would answer, where ? Some of them are common enough in all con- 

 science, Hyalopterus pruni is swarming on our plum trees, and Myzus 

 rihis disfigures the red currant bushes ; but, of course, by " insects " we 

 mean Lepidoptera, and where are they 1 Most species worth mentioning 

 are, as far as Cambridge is concerned, conspicuous by their absence. 

 White butterflies are common enough ; I scarcely remember seeing them 

 more so ; but as for the moths, with the exception of such species as 

 Sesia tipuliformis, Acronycta psi, Plusia chrysitis, Gonoptera lihatrix, 

 Pionea forficalis, and Spilonota suffusana (all of which are abundant 

 enough), they are scarce. I have sugared again and again, this spring 

 and summer, but the moths seem to have joined a lepidopterous " blue 

 ribbon army ; " for sugar, beer, and rum, have proved the reverse of 

 attraction to them. I notice the absence of many species I have been 

 accustomed to see, all the more, because I am making out a list of the 

 lepidoptera occurring in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and so I am 

 carefully investigating the subject, and am constantly on the look-out for 

 specimens. Eudorea pyralalis swarms about our strawberry beds, but it 

 does not abound anywhere else. What does the larva feed on ? There is 

 no moss anywhere near, nor yet lichen in any great plenty. — A. H. 

 Waters, Cambridge. 



