NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 
63 
willow. The Lombardy poplar is only in bud still. I should be glad 
of any suggestions. — W. F. de V. Kane, Sloperton Lodge, Kingstown, 
Ireland. May, 1891. Ent. Record, vol. i., pp. 185 and 260. — Ed.] 
Ruthin, N. Wales. — Weather very cold here, though I suppose some 
of the early species must be out. I visited the Agrotis ashworthii 
locality on March 26th, but all appearances point to a much later season 
than last. Larvae of A. ashworthii, A. lucernea and Gnophos obscurata 
ought to have been found, but apparently they have not yet left their 
winter retreats for I did not see one. Coming home over More 
Famman, at a height of nearly 1000 feet, I found a Larentia 
multistrigaria, clinging to the stones in the middle of the road, and 
almost blown away by the gale. — J. E. R. Allen. March 2Sth, 1891. 
Darlingto 7 i. — We are having very stormy weather, in fact there is no 
staying out of doors at all, I should say some of the hybernating larvae 
must have suffered, as they were beginning to show up in February, 
which was a very fine month here, and I thought I was going to get an 
early start, but shall now be later than usual. — W^m. Milburn. 
April /^th, 1891. 
Elgin. — In the North of Scotland, March and the early part of April 
have been very stormy with strong east winds and hard frost at night, 
now we are getting bright sunshine, but the frost continues, and in 
consequence everything is very late. I have been working the sallows 
in the neighbourhood of Forres and Elgin ; TcRniocampa gothica, stabilis, 
instabilis and several other species were fairly common, but generally 
much worn. I expect the sallows in Morayshire will be a total failure 
this year owing to the frost having spoiled the catkins. Retinia resinana 
is widely distributed in Morayshire, and often abundant. Mr. Abel, 
of Elgin, kindly pointed out a locality for it within a few miles of that 
town, where it is distributed over a wide area, and is not rare. I have 
also found it in nearly every plantation of young Scotch firs which I 
have visited. The insect is in the pupal stage just now. Micros are 
not scarce. — Wm. Reid. April 22?id, 1891. 
Newbury. — The wonderful change in the vveather (to sudden and 
extreme heat) is bringing out numbers of insects in my forcing-house. 
Eupithecia pulchellata comes out every day by threes and fours, and at 
present only one has been anything but perfect. Macroglossa fuciformis, 
Scotosia undulata, Smerinthus ocellatus and Euplexia lucipara have also 
emerged this week, and I have taken a few common insects in the 
moth-trap, and one Cidaria silaceata on May 4th, which seems early. — 
M. Kimber. May \\th, 1891. 
CucuLLiA scROPHULARiyE AS A BRITISH INSECT. — This species is 
undoubtedly British, although I notice that Mr. Dale doubts its being 
so. I am afraid that doubt is often thrown on our rare species being 
indigenous, because the writer has been collecting many years and has 
not happened to find the species. C. scrophularice has been erroneously 
recorded dozens of times, without doubt, by those who have found 
C. verbasci feeding on Scrophularia, but the larva of C. scrophularice is 
very different. Its usual food appears to be S. nodosa and not S. 
aquatica, although C. verbasci feeds on both these plants. In 1889, 
whilst collecting in Kent, I picked up six strange larvae not at all like 
verbasci, being much stumpier and less strongly marked, near a well 
eaten plant of S. nodosa. These pupated at once and whilst three 
