NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 
185 
has also laid some ova ; this insect I had previously only taken at 
Lyndhurst. I then netted a couple of Boarmia repandata var. co 7 i- 
versaria, although in taking the first iny net came to grief. After 
picking a few unimportant things off the sugar, a small Geometer flew 
up into a big sallow, and on turning the lantern upwards, I saw a 
familiar object, in a fine pupa of Apatura iris. I spent an hour over 
that and other sallows and got no more, but I am sure it should be 
a good way to get them as the sallow leaf looks quite blue by lamp- 
light and the pupa pale green, the light colour caught my eye directly. 
On the way home I got two Geometra papilionaria., and have been for 
it again, but only exploded the fallacy that G. papilionana does not 
come out before 12 p.m., as it flies at dusk like other Geometers. I 
have never seen A. iris in this wood, though I am often here, and I 
have beaten the sallows at all times of the year. It shows how little 
we know of the country round us. Thyatira batis and Gonophora 
derasa have come to sugar this year here, and Ritsina tenebrosa., Noctua 
augur., and Helioihis niarginatus, all of which are new to the immediate 
neighbourhood, where I sugar every year. — G. M. A. Hewett. July 
i^th, 1891. 
Swansea. — I have done very little collecting till recently, the only 
things I have taken of note lately are one Plusia orichalcea, taken on 
a flower in the sunshine, August 3rd, one Cosniia pyralina at light last 
night, and one Geometra papilionaria on July 31st. I have also taken 
a few Eupisteria heparata in very good condition, surely very late for 
this insect. — R. B. Robertson. August, 1891. 
Agrotis ravida. — I took a single specimen of this insect at sugar 
on the 15th inst. at Saltburn, Yorkshire. — ^T. Maddison, South Bailey, 
Durham. August igth, 1891. 
Biston hirtaria. —From the notes which have appeared in the 
Record recently, it would seem that this insect is rarely found on the 
various species of poplar. I have several times taken the imago on 
poplar trunks, but these have always been ? ’s. That the larvae will 
feed freely on poplars I have satisfied myself this season, having found 
them devouring the young shoots of two species of the genus Fopiilus \ 
they also feed occasionally on lilac. Whatever the food, the larvae 
always prefer the young shoots growing round the roots of the trees, 
and they are seldom found feeding at a greater height than four feet 
from the ground. As regards the distribution of the species, I can say 
nothing, beyond that I have always had an idea that it flourished 
nowhere so well as in the “parks” and “squares” of London — more 
especially in the northern and north-western districts. Perhaps some 
reader can tell us something of its habits and distribution on the Con 
tinent ? — Jas. A. Simes, 4, Cricketfield Road, Lower Clapton. 
I took the first specimen of B. hirtaria on May nth on a lime 
trunk, and going to the same place about 6.30 the next morning, I took 
over a dozen. They were very abundant up to the 15th, after which 
they fell off in numbers and quality, only a few worn females remaining 
on the tree trunks. I took in all about forty specimens, seventy per cent, 
of which were females, and much less variable in shade than the males. 
I witnessed rather a curious instance of the “reasoning faculties” — if 
such a term can be applied to insects — -being overcome by the “heredi- 
tary instinct,” I had placed two fertile females in a pill-box, hoping to 
