INSECTS PLUSIADJE (Plusiades) (continued) Plusia tripartita, Hufn. (urticae, Hb.). St. Albans, Harpenden, Bricket Wood and Rickmansworth (A. E. G.) ; Sand- ridge (Griffith) ; Hitchin (Durrant) ; Haileybury (Bowyer) ; Bushey (Cults) ; Watford (Spencer, Heaton, Wigg) ; Bushey Heath (Barraud) ; Tring (Elliman) ; Cheshunt (Boyd) Common at flowers and ' light ' triplasia, L. Hitchin (Durrant) ; Hailey- bury (Bowyer) ; Hertford (Stephens) ; East Barnet (Gillum) ; Watford (Cottam, Spencer) ; Bushey Heath (Barraud) ; Tring (Elliman) ; Ches- hunt (Boyd) This moth is described by the last-named observer as common round Cheshunt, but in other parts of the county it is only occasionally met with, chiefly at flowers at dusk. Mr. Elliman speaks of it as very scarce at honeysuckle, and Mr. Barraud has taken several specimens Catocala fraxini, L. Haileybury (Bowyer) ; Waltham Cross (Boyd) Mr. Boyd says that this insect has been seen at Waltham Cross, but the only record of its actual capture in Hertfordshire is that at Haileybury. Mr. Bowyer thus describes the event in a paper read before the members of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society at Hertford on February 28th, 1888 (Transactions, v. 29). He says : ' Last autumn our porter brought to me a large moth which he had picked up in the quadrangle. I thought at first it was the common " red underwing," but it gave a flap of its wings and I saw violet instead of red, and I knew that I had a great prize Catocala fraxini ' nupta, L. St. Albans (A. Lewis, A. E. G.) ; Hawkswick, Bamville Wood Farm, Harpenden Common, and Cross Farm, Wheathampstead (A. E. G.) ; Sandridge (Griffith) ; Hitchin (Durrant) ; Grove Mill (F. Latch- more) ; Haileybury (Bowyer) ; East Barnet (Gillum) ; Nascot Wood, Bushey and Oxhey Wood (Cutts) ; Watford (Cottam, Spencer) ; Bushey Heath (Barraud) ; Carpenders Park (H. Row- land-Brown) ; Stevenage (Matthews) ; Bishop Stanford (Taylor, Mellows) ; Cheshunt (Boyd) ; Royston (A. H. Kingston) Commoner in some years than others ; in 1 900 especially abundant. PLUSIAD.S: (Plusiades) (continued) The late Mr. Frank Latchmore of Hitchin reported in 1894 that this insect was quite common by the water side in that neighbourhood. It is a hardy species and is often to be taken in October even on cold nights with a strong wind blowing. At ' light,' ' sugar ' and on palings Euclidia mi, Cl. Bricket Wood (A. E. G.) ; Sandridge (Griffith) ; Hitchin (Dur- rant) ; Haileybury (Bowyer) ; East Barnet (Gillum) ; Watford (Spencer, Heaton, Wigg) ; Bushey Heath (Bar- raud) ; Oxhey railway bank (H. Row- land-Brown) ; Oxhey Wood (Cutts) ; Tring (Cottam) ; Dancer's End and Aldbury Owers (Le Quesne, Elliman) ; Long Meadow, Bishop Stortford (Mellows) ; Cheshunt (Boyd) Generally abundant where it oc- curs. Scarce round Cheshunt glyphica, L. Hatfield Woodside (A. E. G.) ; Hitchin and Knebworth (Dur- rant) ; Haileybury (Bowyer), ' Skipper fields,' School List ; East Barnet (Gil- lum) ; Oxhey Wood (Cutts) ; Oxhey railway bank (H. Rowland-Brown) ; Stortford (Mellows) Mr. Elliman finds this insect very common in the Tring district, but usually on the chalk downs. At Bishop Stortford it is plentiful in Long Meadow. In mid-Herts it is occasionally met with in some abun- dance in clover fields, the food plants of the larvae being various species of trifolium and other leguminous plants Erastria fasciana, L. (fuscula, Bkh.). Bricket Wood (A. E. G.) ; Knebworth (Dur- rant) ; Haileybury (Bowyer), ' Roman road, once,' School List Rare luctuosa, Esp. Hertford (Stephens, Illustrations of British Entomology, iii. . ."3) viridaria, Cl. (aenea, Hb.). Berkham- sted (A. Piffard, Entomologist for 1889, p. 77) ; Hertford (Stephens) ; Tring (Elliman) ; Broxbourne Wood (Boyd) Mr. Elliman finds this moth on nearly all the chalk downs in the neighbourhood of Tring. It appears to be a local species Panemeria tenebrata, Sc. (arbuti, F.). Bricket Wood (Spencer, A. E. G.) ; Sand- ridge (Griffith) ; Hitchin (Durrant) ; Haileybury (Bowyer), ' Orchis field? School List ; Hertford (Stephens) ; 129
