1903- Notes. 109 



Entomological Notes on the Season. 



The past season has been anything but a good one for insects. The 

 prevalence of cold winds and damp weather operated most unfavourably 

 for collecting, and insects have been decidedly scarce. Lepidoptera, as 

 might be expected, were badly represented. Vanessa urticce was, as usual, 

 early on the wing, appearing on April 9th; "whites "were not as 

 numerous as usual, but the larvae of P. brassicce made a great attack on 

 the leaves of swede turnips in one of my fields, not, however, in such 

 numbers as to cause any real damage ; Pararge egeria was about the most 

 abundant butterfly here ; I saw a few Vanessa atalanta^ and on August 

 12th. captured a single Argynnis paphia in my garden, being the first I had 

 seen here ; on September 26th, I took a nice specimen of Vanessa cardui^ 

 on a road about a quarter of a mile from this. On the same day, I got a 

 larva of Smerinthns populi, feeding on sallow on the same road as I took 

 V. cardui on. It had two rows of crimson spots on either side, one at the 

 spiracles, and the other on the subdorsal region ; this variet}' of the larva, 

 Mr. Barrett remarks, is frequent in North Britain, having been often 

 noticed in Roxburgshire. By hunting the flowers of Ragweed at dusk I 

 took Tapinostola fulva, but sugar has been a failure; on no night were 

 there a dozen moths out — the most plentiful Miselia oxyacanthcc. 



Bees and wasps have been very little in evidence, indeed. Of the latter 

 I hardly saw any till September. I notice them still (October^ active at 

 the pine trees. When cutting hay I generally find a good many nests of 

 Bombus, but this year I only saw two. I, for the first time, however, met 

 with Psithyrus^ having taken a specimen of P. barbutelhis floating in the 

 canal near Newry. 



Of Coleoptera I managed to make one or two good captures ; but except 

 on the few days of sunshine they were like other insects conspicuous by 

 their absence. I took several Cilea silphoides crawling in a cart in which 

 manure was carried, and a couple of Hister cadaverinus on a manure heap. 

 These occurred in Ma}-, and in the same month I beat Lochmcea cratcngi 

 from Hawthorn. In August, I took a single specimen oi Antherophagus 

 pallens sitting on a thistle flower in one of my fields. I could not find 

 any others on any of the flowers in the vicinit}', nor could I find the nest 

 of a Bombus anywhere about, so possibly the beetle had been conveyed 

 there by a bee as Canon Fowler notes (^Brit. Col, vol. iii , p. 312), that a 

 Bombus was taken by Mr. Hold with Antherophagtts nigj'tcornis firmly fixed 

 by the mandibles to one of the bee's legs. On June 28th, I went with the 

 Belfast Naturalists' P'ield Club to Ne-^ry, and took a Donacia on water 

 plants in the canal, which proved to be D, clavipes, F., of which this is 

 the first record for Ulster. I also obtained a number oi Hyphydrus ovatus, 

 which was quite common in the canal just outside the town. 



Lough Shark is a small lake just on the borders of Co. Down, but 

 mostly in that county. I had tried the shore once or twice before, but 

 had met with nothing of interest. In April last, however, I tried a 

 different part, and had the pleasure of taking Pelophila borealis, this 

 being the first actual instance of its occurrence in Co. Down, as Haliday's 

 "Near Belfast" most probably refers to the Antrim shore of Lough 



