37 
some marsh plant, and will also eat knot-grass ( Polygonum ). Mr. 
Seymour St. John gives purple loosestrife, plantain, yarrow, valerian, 
and meadowsweet as regular foods, and chickweed, groundsel, dandelion, 
whitethorn and clematis as plants upon which the larva will feed in 
confinement. The natural foodplants appear to be quite as much 
hedgerow plants as fen plants. The best time for the imago would 
appear to be about the second week in July. Those shown were taken 
on July 15th, and on the 26th they were passe. They rise out of the 
long grass as one walks along. Ova were deposited last year on July 
26th, hatched on August 12th. On the 30th, I noticed that the larvae 
were growing very slowly; they rested on the stems and leaves of the 
chickweed, curled up in the shape of a note of interrogation (?), a 
similar attitude to that assumed by the larvae of many Eupithecice , etc. 
The colour was of a dingy green without any characteristic markings. 
The larvae were exhibited before this Society on October 1st, and on 
the 4th I noticed that some appeared nearly full-grown, whilst others 
remained quite small; some of the larger ones began to make earthen 
cocoons on October 10th, and the first pupated on the 17th of the 
same month. None of the moths, however, emerged. The insect 
seems to be widely distributed, but local. It does not figure in any of 
our London lists, but is recorded from the neighbourhood of Swansea, 
Leigh, Romsey, Hertford and Warrington. Mr. Tutt also records it 
from Wicken Fen, Mr. Simes from Matley Bog near Lyndhurst, and 
Mr. Fenn from Deal.” In Coleoptera Mr. Heasler exhibited two very 
local species from Mitcham, Trechus discus and Hydroporus ferrugineus; 
he states that his example of the latter species was taken in his hand, 
and that he felt sure he could have procured more if he had had a 
water net. Mr. Tutt then read the following paper on his work at 
Wicken Fen :— 1 
“ My success at Wicken last year tempted me to make another 
trip to the same locality with my son Bertie, and we spent three 
weeks there, commencing from July 27th. The local collectors 
reported an excellent season up to date, several species having 
occurred abundantly on some evenings, as Melia?ia flammea , Nascia 
cilialis , etc.; whilst such local species as Cuspidia strigosa and Cyma- 
tophora ocularis had been rather more common than usual. Bisulcia 
ligustri had turned up; Ap'lecta advena had been abundant, but 
Mr. Houghton informed me that he doubted whether I should get 
Agrotis ravida this year, as it was out fully a month earlier than last 
year, and it was, he believed, over. This, I found, was only too true, 
one specimen only being allured by the light a day or so after my 
arrival. My troubles meteorologically were legion. During the first 
week, there was a north-east wind blowing, the sky was generally clear, 
radiation was excessive, and in about an hour after sunset there was a 
thick dew, sometimes changed into a ground fog all over the Fen. Of 
course, on such nights, nothing came to light and nothing to sugar. 
On two nights in this week it rained and was pitch dark, and then we 
got a heap of moths at light, although sugar still failed. The second 
week the wind got more westerly, but the sky remained clear as ever. 
There was less radiation, but a full moon prevented the light working, 
and only on one night during this week did we have any real success. 
Sugar was still an absolute failure. Dusking, however, paid well, and I 
took a very large number of specimens, chiefly Geometry and 
