162 
A. E. GIBBS—LEPIDOPTERA 
of the cocoon harmonizing well with the tint of the older foliage. 
The young larvae captured on the 1st of May began to spin-up 
on the roof of the cage on the 14th of the same month, and the 
first moth appeared on 14th June. Miss Dickinson also reports 
taking the larvae of this insect in June on delphinium, and she 
successfully reared them, the moths appearing in July, a rather later 
record than mine. She says : “1 found the larvae of this beautiful 
moth by noticing the leaves drooping. I think they commence feeding 
near the stalk on the mid-ribs of the leaves, and so cause the 
leaves to give way and wither. On examination I found on each 
a young caterpillar protected by a thin web. I at first thought 
that the wind was responsible for the broken leaves. In July 
I watched a female moth depositing eggs on the green seed-pods. 
This rather surprised me, for my delphiniums are generally cut 
down twice in the season.” It is remarkable how quickly this 
moth, which was captured in Britain for the first time in 1890, 
at Dover, has spread over the southern part of our Island, and 
how firmly it has established itself. It bids fair to become one 
of our commonest garden moths. Its life-history is not at present 
thoroughly understood, but the species has lately attracted a great 
deal of attention, and we shall doubtless soon possess more 
information about it. I exhibit a series of 26 specimens which 
were reared in 1904 from the larvae taken in the garden. 
The insects secured at sallow in the neighbourhood of St. Albans 
in the spring included, besides the commoner species, Tccniocampa 
populeti , Pachnobia rubricosa, and Panolis pipiperda, the last-named 
insect having only been taken at one other Hertfordshire locality 
in recent years, viz. Watford, by Mr. Wigg. It has a special 
interest for us, because, although now a rather common insect in 
those parts of England where its food-plant, the Scotch fir, Pinus 
sylvestris , grows, the first British specimen was taken at Hertford 
in 1810 by Mr. J. F. Stevens, to whose life and local records 
I alluded at some length last year. On 17th April a female 
Pachnobia rubricosa , taken at some young sallows which I have 
planted in the garden for the purpose of attracting moths, deposited 
a batch of eggs in a chip-box. On the 21st the young larvae 
commenced to emerge, and so soon as they were of sufficient size 
they were sleeved on balsam-poplar, and in due course went 
through their several changes. The first perfect insect emerged 
on 18th March, 1905. 
I sugared in the vicinity of the city on several occasions during 
the summer with very unsatisfactory results, the only insects taken 
in this way being Acronycta megacephala, Rusina tenebrosa, Noctua 
Jestiva , Euplexia lucipara, and Bianthecia cucubali , and in the 
autumn at Bricket Wood, Thyatira batis , and other common Noctuae. 
A specimen of the black aberration of Amphidasys betularia , known 
as Boubledayaria, emerged at the Museum from a chrysalis dug 
in Clarence Park. Eupithecia lariciata , which is new to the 
!$t. Albans list, occurred at Gorhambury. 
Miss Alice Dickinson, to whose diligent observation we owe so 
