(January , 
2oe 
Odour emUted b, SpUn. convolvuU.-I omitted to add to the notes on Bphin. 
convolvuli, which appeared in the last number (p. 168), the fact that two or three 
male specimens of the moth, caught in my garden this autumn, whilst ahve, and 
held between my finger and thumb, gave forth a very perceptible odour of musfe, as 
was remarked by several members of my family besides myself; I did not percexve 
the same smell with the females, but not having been able to procure any more 
specimens after my attention had been drawn to the males, I do not hke to say 
positively that the sexes differ in this respect.-J. Hellins, Exeter, December, 1868. 
EaUts of Coccy. nyrciniana^U the spruce fir is examined early in the spring, 
„.any of the needles will be found to be eaten out and turned brown, -d care^^^^^^^ 
laid down parallel with the shoot, so as to form a covered way for the P- ^^^J 
the larva. This lar^a seems hard to find, although its traces are plentiful enough, 
but I believe it to be that of Coccy. hyrcirdana, which I have bred by keepmg a 
lot of the infested shoots in a bottle.-CHAKLES G. Barrett, Norwich. 
mes on the earlier stages of Dasycampa ruUgir.ea.-l well r«-^™^- j,^^ 
curious mixture of satisfaction and disappointment with which I — --;;-- 
of Cidaria pyraliata fall into my net, after having for three seasons -mV W t 
procure one, in order that Mr. Buckler might be enabled to complete a set o 
figures of that genus : there was satisfaction that the long-desired species wa 
obtained, disappointment somehow that now there was no other C^dar^a to b 
looked f^r-re'Lata, of course, excepted ; but that seemed, and stil seems 
far out of reach, that it did not come into my reckoning, ^d I mus confess 
something like a return of the same mixed feelings, as I take up the pen tc 
chronicle my observations on the earlier stages of Basycampa ruUginea, for one a 
xny longest desiderated secrets is now gained, and a twelve years pursuit h« 
come to an end. Throughout that period scarcely a year has passed without som 
one of us in this neighbourhood taking a specimen of the moth, but eggs we cou^ 
not get. If a female were taken at ivy in the autumn it was no good, for shi 
could not be kept alive till the pairing time in spring. Mr. Norcombe once shu 
np six moths, with the sole result of getting just so many wasted specimens foi tb 
cLnet ; and if we took a moth at sallows in the spring it always ^n-d o-t to b 
a male So it had gone on, as I said before, for twelve years. Howeve , tb 
season! Mr. Thos. Terry, of Babbicombe, has been more successful, and to h. 
eenerosity I am indebted for my present knowledge. ^ , ^ ^ , , 
^ On March 21st, 1868, he took a female at sallows, and shut her up in a gla.^ 
topped box about six inches square, putting in for her food a httle plum-jam. 
March 28th he saw two eggs had been laid on the box ; on the 30th. three mor^ 
fnApril 1st, two more on the box, and four on a sprig of blackthorn which he h 
Iph d. These were followed by three or four more, for which I have no date 
and were all laid singly, on the underside of a leaf, or under any httle projection^ 
the box How, afte^ this again, the unhappy moth stuck in the jam, and pen h 
xnLrably with 87 eggs in her still unlaid; how, of the few secured bad lu. 
™d 'nearly one-tltrd, either before or just after the hatching of the larv^ 
'm not relate at length: I mention these mishaps only to enhance Mr. Ten, 
liberality in still sparing eggs and larv^ to Mr. Buckler and myself. 
The larv^ were hatched between April 19th and 23rd; fed freely on ph« 
leaves, and not so well on sloe, sometimes taking to knotgrass and became ftiU^ 
from iune 15th to 20th ; and the moths appeared between September 8th and 201 
