Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/361

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Insects.
333

earth at the bottom of the cage, and unattached to the cage itself. Several pieces of earth were woven into the fabric, and the whole resembled exactly the cocoon of Cucullia Verbasci. The moth appeared on the 4th of May. I do not remember hearing of a similar instance of departure from the usual habit of this genus.—J.W. Douglas; 6, Grenville Terrace, Coburg Road, Kent Road, September, 1843.

Note on Cucullia Asteris. Several larvae of this hitherto rare species were taken last August and September, on Solidago Yirgaurea, at Birch wood. They formed a tough cocoon below the surface of the ground, just like C. Verbasci, and the moths appeared from the 6th to the 24th of June.—Id.

Note on Acronycta Ligustri. I beat one larva from an ash tree at Birch wood, September 4, and the moth appeared June 16.—Id.

Note on Scoliopteryx Libatrix. One of your correspondents, (Mr. Bladon, Zool. 260) mentions Scoliopteryx Libatrix being found in a torpid state during the winter months. It may be interesting to him to know that the usual time of our capturing this insect has always been during its hybernation. It is seldom that I have taken it flying at night, and have only once reared it (from a beautifully transparent green-coloured larva feeding on willow); but in the latter part of October or early in November, being of course guided by the weather, it retires to winter quarters, and may be found in cupboards, or any other place of apparent security accessible to it, throughout the winter. I have procured six or seven specimens at a time during its torpidity, from a small cave on the banks of the Teign, where it retires with Vanessa 16, V. Urticae, Alucita hexadactyla, several kinds of dipterous insects, and sometimes Rhinolophus Ferrum-equinum, as companions. All the Vanessae, I have no doubt, hybernate, as V. Polychloros and Atalanta may often be seen in the earlier months of spring. Several other Noctuae and Geometrae, amongst which may be mentioned Xylina semibrunnea and Euthalia psitticata, are also sometimes torpid during the winter.—Robert C.R. Jordan; Lympstone, Devon, September 18, 1843.

Note on the capture of Moths on Sallows near Norwich. The following moths were taken on the blossoms of the sallow, near Norwich, from the 25th of March to the 10th of April, in the springs of 1841, 1842, and 1843.

Semiophora gothica Orthosia stabilis Xylina Lambda
Orthosia instabilis cruda Calocampa exoleta
gracilis Glaea rubricosa Hadena Lithorhiza
munda satellitia Hibernia capreolaria
sparsa Vaccinii Depressaria applana

Henry F. Farr; Lower Close, Norwich, August 17, 1843.

Note on the capture of Moths on Ivy, near Norwich. The following were taken on the blossoms of the ivy, near Norwich, from the 22nd of September to the 1st of December, in the autumns of 1840, 1841 and 1842.

Triphama orbona Orthosia macilenta Polia flavocincta
Agrotis aequa Glaea satellitia seladonia
suffusa Vaccinii and var. Xanthia fulvago
Graphiphora C-nigrum spadicea flavago
Orthosia litura subnigra and var. aurago
pistacina polita citrago
sphaerulatina Xylina Lambda rufina
lota Miselia Oxyacanthae Phlogophora meticulosa
flavilinea Aprilina Larentia cervinaria