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I have taken single specimens of the following species, and cannot 
account for their presence, unless it be that, as travellers, they were, 
perhaps, trying to find out what sort of a place Rainham was, and if it 
be so, they have every reason to be dissatisfied :—• 
Dicycla oo, a species dear to me, of which.I have had 80 specimens 
on the boards at once. There is scarcely an oak near. Orthosia 
suspecta : there is but one birch tree for miles. I suppose that, although 
the books say of the larva “ food-plant unknown,” most of you know 
that it will feed up on birch. These two species are those to 
which I referred as being remarkable, inasmuch as they were the only 
captures worth noting taken in a reed-bed. 
Two Xanthia gilvago, one last year, and one this. I am not so much 
surprised at taking this insect, as at not having taken more, for elms are 
common enough. Phibalapteryx vitalbata (at sugar); there is no cle¬ 
matis within three miles. Drepana falcataria. Remember the absence 
of birch. Erastria fasciana : taken flying, at 8 a.m. in my garden ; of 
interest to me, because Newman says this species is common in the bogs 
of Killarney. I have only seen it in woods. A Geometra papilionaria 
must also have felt disappointed to have found no birch. 
Larvae of Acherontia atropos are fairly common. Last year I had 
five and reared three. This year I have had eight, none of which have 
produced moths so far. 
Apamea ophiogramma is an insect which everybody seems t^ want. 
It was very rare at Brentwood, where I lived for six or seven years 
previous to settling in Rainham. I had no sooner got into the latter 
place, than I began to look about for means of enticing it into my gar¬ 
den. The striped ribbon-grass is a well recognised lure, and of this I 
found that I possessed one stunted specimen, growing in a stony 
path. I divided this, and, as is its habit, it increased and multiplied. 
The first summer, I got no A. ophiogramma; in 1893, I secured seven, 
and this year, twelve, between July 6tli and August 15th. I have now 
large quantities of the food-plant growing, and hope next year to succeed 
in rearing some in captivity. 
But what a difference there is between catching A. ophiogramma , and 
possessing specimens good enough for one’s cabinet, if one is particular. 
How often what one thought good at first sight, fails to satisfy after it 
is set out. I am inclined to think that this, with some other species— 
such as Busina tenebrosa, &c. —require much more careful handling than 
the majority of insects (the scales seem to be more loosely fixed), and I 
now kill A. ophiogramma with oxalic acid, and set it with the least possible 
delay. 
A. saucia seems to have been entirely absent from Rainham this year, 
for I have not seen a single specimen, good or bad. The local form is 
a beautiful one, being much clouded with light grey, and the specimens 
are considerably larger than those which I have been accustomed to meet 
with elsewhere. 
A. lunosa has been very abundant on sugar this year. One seems to 
have taken it more frequently at light, and I find a note that the first 
time I ever saw it at sugar, was on September 27th, 1892. Perhaps it 
is a case of acquired taste, which has become hereditary. 
I took a specimen of Hadena thalassina at sugar, on Sept. 4th ; 
Stainton gives June and July ; Merrin, May, June and July ; Newman, 
May and June. I bred H. suasa (one out of a number of pupae), on the 
