NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
141
caught in the Ongar Road, Chelmsford. The handsome caterpillars of this
species occurred in some numbers on the raspberry canes at Tiptree Heath
last year.—W. M. W., Brentwood, July, 10th 1897.
The "Coast Lackey Moth" (Clisiocampa castrensis).—The caterpillars
of this moth have been noticed in astonishing numbers on the Essex coast this
spring ; often many thousands could be counted in a few square yards. The
moth is very interesting to Essex naturalists, inasmuch as it is only found in
Britain by the shores of the estuaries of the Thames and Medway, feeding on
salt-marsh plants. Abroad, the species is distributed widely, and is not
restricted to salt-marshes, but is found in woods and heaths, feeding on
oak, birch, blackthorn, and some low-growing herbs. This is by no means a
solitary instance of remarkable dissimilarity of habitat in Continental and
British insects of the same species—for instance, Papilio machaon is with us
confined to marshes, while on the Continent it is found in gardens and fields
everywhere.—Ed.
COLEOPTERA.
Trap for Beetles.—According to Mr. Warburton, "Zoologist" to the
Royal Agricultural Society, a plan for trapping Wire-worm Beetles (Elateridae)
has been tried on a farm in Cambridgeshire, and in the United States with
much success. Some clover was placed under a tile in a barley field in Cam-
bridgeshire infested with the beetles, and within a fortnight 65 were captured
and destroyed. Assuming half to have been females, it is estimated that the
production of 900 wireworms was thus prevented. The clover continues to
attract the beetles after it has become quite dry. The experiment is not only
interesting to farmers and gardeners, but may afford a useful hint to the
collectors of some tribes of plant-eating beetles.
MOLLUSCA.
Colchester "Native Oysters" at Gloucester in Roman Times.—
Mr. Eliot Howard, in the course of an interesting letter to the Editor on the
recent discoveries made in the tracing out of Glevum Colonia by the acumen
and skill of Mr. John Bellews, writes :—"The mention in the Essex
Naturalist for last quarter of a 'Colchester native of the time of Con-
stantine the Great' suggested to me that it might be interesting for the
Museum to possess some 'native' shells of an even earlier date." Mr. Howard
sends specimens of the oysters, and after referring to the completeness with
which Mr. Bellews has identified the positions of Roman Gloucester, he con-
tinues :—"At certain parts of the wall, outside where the officers' 'quarters'
would be, are found heaps of native (Colchester) oyster-shells, whereas the
common soldiers were content with local bivalves (probably obtained from
the Mumbles). This brings up the interesting fact of the rapid communica-
tion that must have existed between the two fortresses at one time forming
the two ends of the military line held by the Romans as the limit of their
effective occupation—as, later, the 'walls' in the north held back the still
more turbulent Caledonian tribes. It would seem that the Romans always
held the country by a quadrilateral of fortresses, and in Mr. Bellews' opinion,
when Glevum was in its prime and Camalodunum was the opposite corner,
the quadrilateral was completed by Chester and Lincoln."