THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
99 
N. Lucina. This pretty little Fritillary 
is extremely local here, though not rare; 
Us flight, as far as my experience goes, 
is confined to a small spot about fifteen 
or a dozen yards square, covered with 
fern and low plants, on a hill-side. 
S. Convolvuli. At rest. 
P. Populi. At light. 
S. Illustraria. Do., and on palings. 
E. Fuscantaria. At light. 
A. Trigeminata. Beating. 
M. Alternata. A few at light. 
A. Rubidata. Mothiug, and at light. 
C. Gemmaria. At light. My observa- 
tions as regards the different times of 
appearance of the two sexes have been 
exactly the reverse of Mr. Rogers’ ; I took 
no males till October, and since then 
have seen no females. 
P. Vitalbata. Beating. 
S. Rhamnata. Mothing. 
C. Picata. Beating. 
... Silaceata. Do. 
D. Furcula. Larvae. 
P. CassiDea. At light. 
A. Leporina. Larvae. I have never 
seen the fact noticed that so many of our 
birch-feeding larvae seem to relish alder, 
if not to prefer it to their more orthodox 
diet. The few British examples we have 
of Bicuspis have fed chiefly, if not 
entirely, on the latter tree. The larvae of 
Leporina and pupae of Dromeclarius are 
found commonly on and beneath it, and 
here in our oak woods C. Pusaria and 
A. Gcedartella may be beaten ad libitum 
amongst the low alder bushes ; yet all 
these have the reputation of being birch 
insects. Indeed, though we have no 
birch within many miles, I don’t quite 
despair of taking Carmelita here. 
X. Conspicillaris. One pupa dug at 
elm. I could see no distinction between 
it and the ordinary naked pupae of the 
Taniocampas , &c., which one always 
meets with at that tree. 
H. Petasitis. At light. 
D. Templi. Do. 
S. Retusa. Mothiug. 
H. Genistas. Palings. 
C. Nupta. At sugar; extremely shy. 
P. Purpuralis. At light. 
B. Asinalis. Mothing. 
— W. G. Rawlinson, The Chestnuts, 
Taunton ; Dec. 14. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Larva- of Thecla W-album. — I beat ten 
larvae of this species from wych elm at 
West Wickham in the middle of last 
May, and as they did not agree very 
exactly with the description in the 
‘ Manual,’ I send you a description : — 
Onisciform, each segment raised into a 
crest or ridge, divided by the dorsal line, 
and also by an oblique line in each side 
of every segment: all these lines are 
completely cut into the crests. Colour 
pea-green, the raised portions of the seg- 
ments strongly tinged with yellow ; head 
black, retractile. When full fed the 
dorsal line becomes brown, and that 
colour gradually spreads through the 
other lines and over the whole body ; 
this occupies a day or two, when they 
spin up. I put in earth and moss, to 
try whether they preferred it, but only 
one spun up underneath the moss, two 
on the glass which covered the galley-pot 
in which they were, and the remainder 
among the leaves. One larva was very 
small (only one-fourth grown when some 
of the others spun up), and he appeared 
to have a very depraved taste, for he 
attacked and partially devoured both 
those which had spun up on the glass, 
although there was plenty of fresh (bod, 
upon which others were feeding. This is 
the first instance I have met with of can- 
nabalism in a butterfly larva, and it was 
properly punished, for although he fed 
up very rapidly after his unnatural feast, 
when he spun up he had not sufficient 
vigour to turn to a pupa, as all the others 
had done, but turned black and died. 
