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MOTHS AT WALDRINGFIELD
Platten's collection, he discovered a specimen of this Chocolate Tip apparently overlooked, but labelled " T r a p 1898 ". At this time the captor was probably living in Ipswich. My specimen can certainly claim to be the first recorded capture. T h e Varied Coronet (Hadena compta Fabr.) has also turned up at light here. No less th'an three were taken on July 23. Since 1953, when Mr. Aston first took it at Polstead, it has appeared at Southwold and now, I hear, at Stowmarket this year. This indicates it is spreading rapidly over the whole county. The Purple Thorn (Selenia tetralunaria Hufn.) also occurred again here. A single example of the White Admiral (Limenitis Camilla Linn.) was seen in this garden on August 1. T h e late Major Glossop of Rivers Hall, Waldringfield, put down a good many larvae of this butterfly near his house some twelve years ago. A few imagines were seen the following year, but it has not been seen since then, though this one may be a survival from that stock. ALFRED
WALLER,
Waldringfield Rectory.
THE DEATH'S HEAD MOTH AND OTHER RARE SPECIES IN NORFOLK T h a t grand insect, the Death's Head Hawk (Acherontia atropos Linn.) has visited this county in exceptional numbers this season, especially in the late summer, quite fifty häving been recorded from all over the British Isles right up to the Hebrides. Possibly the most remarkable catch, and a record one as well, was that reported by Mr. Geoffrey Todd at West Runton. He says that on the night of September 2, 1956, with a very muggy and damp atmosphere he found no less than fourteen Death's Heads in or sitting around his Mercury-vapour trap. T h e majority were at rest within a few feet of it. Besides these there were five examples of the Convolvulus Hawk-moth (Herse convolvuli Linn.). A week later four more Death's Heads appeared, but no more Convolvulus. Mr. T o d d also reports the capture by a boy in the same area of a Bedstraw Hawk-moth (Deilephila galii Rott.) as well as two larvae of this species of which a moth was also found in the same spot in 1955. Other uncommon species which Mr. Todd has taken in his trap this year include four specimens of the White-point Wainscot (Leucania albipuncta Fabr.), an unusually marked Scarce Bordered Straw (Heliothis armigera Hübn.) and that pretty white Pyrale the Olive-tree Pearl (Margeronia unionalis Hübn.) C.
G.
M.
DE W O R M S .