Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/188

1354 From the numbers which have been taken in thjs neighbourhood during the present season it would appear that, although O. leucographa is no doubt very local, it abounds in certain districts ; and the fact of its very early appearance will account for the im- perfect condition of most of the specimens heretofore captured. I should imagine the larvse feed upon some plant peculiar to limestone, as the moth appears to be confined here entirely to the magnesian limestone tract, west of Doncaster. O. munda also abounds in the same locality. O. opima appears to prefer the rich loam and warp near the banks of the Don, while O. gracilis abounds chiefly on the peat lands of Potterie Car, — a reclaimed bog. O. populeti occurs with Glcea rubricosa in a moist, boggy wood, not more than two hundred yards from Sandal Beat, — a wood situated on dry, sandy gravel, with a slight covering of peat, — where miniosa is found, but populeti never seen. O. munda, leucographa, and populeti have appeared in much greater num- bers than usual this season, while instabilis, opima, and gracilis have been unusually rare. It is a singular fact, that out of fifty-nine specimens of O. munda, which Mr. Evans reared from larvae, there was not a single variety, all were marked exactly the same with the twin spots very faint ; they were fed on poplar leaves. I have now a brood of O. opima feeding heartily on poplar, they have shed the first skin and assumed the green stripes. — John R. Hawley; Hall Gate, Doncaster, May 7th, 1846.

Capture of Lepidoptera in Scotland.—Agrotis suffusa, one Feb. 23rd, and one Feb. 28th, sugar, Boyd's Planting.

Calocampa exoleta, fourteen specimens, Feb. 16th to 28th, sugar, Boyd's Planting and Torwood.

Calocampa vetusta, seven specimens, Feb. 14th to 25th, sugar, Boyd's Planting and Torwood.

Anisopteryx JEscularia, one, Torwood, Feb. 16th.

Phigalia pilosaria, seven specimens, Feb. 14th to 25th, Torwood and Boyd's Planting.

Larentia multistrigaria, common, Torwood and Boyd's Planting. The Agrotis suffusa are quite fresh specimens, and some of the exoleta and vetusta are also very fine.

The sallows have been in blossom at Torwood since the 14th of February, but none of the Orthosis seem to have found them out yet.—H.T. Stainton; Lewisham, March 10th, 1846.

Empis borealis, (Linn.)— This insect is recorded in Curtis's ' British Entomology,' p. 1 8, to have been taken in Wicklow early in May by Mr. Tardy. I have found it at the end of April on Bleasdale Moor, near Lancaster, and also at Hammerfest, Fin- mark, in July. — Francis Walker.

Immense Natural Beehive. — In a cavern on the right bank of the Colorado, about seven miles from Austin, there is an immense hive of wild bees. On a warm day, a dark stream of bees may be constantly seen winding out from the cavern like a long dark wreath of smoke. The stream often appears one or two feet in diameter near the clifi" and gradually spreads out like a fan, growing thinner and thinner at a distance from the cavern until it disappears. The number of the bees in this cavern must be incal- culably great, probably greater than the number in a thousand or ten thousand ordi- nary hives. The oldest settlers say that the hive was there when they first arrived in the country; and it is quite probable that it existed in the same state many years pre- vious to the settlement of this country. It was estimated that there are many tons of honey and wax in this immense hive ; and if its contents could be extracted readily,