Burton : Notes on Lincolnshire Lepidoptera. 



the spores are ejected or shot out of the ascus to some distance 

 when mature. Such spores often alight on blades of grass 

 growing- near the dung on which they are produced, and on 

 coming into contact with the air the mucilage surrounding them 

 almost immediately sets hard and is insoluble in water, hence 

 the spores are not washed to the ground by rain, but remain 

 firmly glued to the grass on which they alighted. Much of this 

 spore-infected grass is eventually eaten by herbivorous animals, 

 and in this way the spores find their way into the alimentary 

 canal, where they commence to germinate, and after the dung 

 is deposited produce fruit within a few days, shoot out their 

 spores in due course, which are again swallowed along with the 

 grass on which they alight, and thus herbivorous animals in 

 every portion of the globe unconsciously assist in the distribution 

 of these minute but beautiful organisms. Spores of coprophilous 

 fungi found on dead grass that had remained throughout the 

 winter lying on the ground were found to germinate readily 

 after passing through the intestinal canal of a guinea-pig, and 

 it is probably from such over-winter spores that the first crop of 

 these fungi are produced in the spring. The large shipment 

 of hay and forage of various kinds from one part of the w T orld to 

 another will in all probability assist in the distribution of copro- 

 philous fungi ; in fact, judging from the occurrence of many of 

 our common British species in most of our colonies, it may fairly 

 be assumed that this factor has already been at work. 



NOTES on LINCOLNSHIRE LEPIDOPTERA. 



Calocampa exoleta at Revesby, Line. N. — At the meeting of the 

 Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, on the 4th July last at Revesby, I found 

 a large caterpillar feeding on the leaves of a Lily in the Abbey grounds, 

 which went down to earth soon after. While in captivity it fed sometimes 

 on the leaves of Lilium speciosum , and sometimes on those of the Oak. 

 The moth came out on the 22nd of last month (September) and proved 

 to be the above species. — F. M. Burton, Highfield, Gainsborough, 7th 

 October 1901. 



Shark Moths near Gainsborough. — Cucullia asteris. This rare 

 moth hatched out in my breeding cage about a year ago. I cannot say 

 when I found fhe caterpillar, nor where I got it from. I was not familiar 

 with it, and, consequently, though carelessly, lost sight of it. 



Citcidlia verbasci. For the last three seasons the caterpillar of this 

 moth has occurred in great numbers, feeding on the various Mulleins 

 ( Verbascnm) in my garden. When they first appeared they were far more 

 numerous than they were this year, and probably by next season they will 

 have vanished as suddenly as they came. I have never seen this moth 

 before in this neighbourhood, though I have grown numbers of Mulleins of 

 various kinds in my garden for years past. — F. M. Burton, Highfield, 

 Gainsborough, 7th October 1901. 



Naturalist, 



