June, '09] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 265 



Notes on some New Jersey Lepidoptera. 

 BY HERMAN H. BREHME, Newark, New Jersey. 



The season of 1908 came in good and looked as if it was 

 going to be a record-breaker for caterpillars, but the hopes 

 of collectors were soon shattered. The season as I found it 

 was on the whole, as follows : 



Lycacna pseudargiohis and its variations were all rare. 

 There used to be no trouble in collecting from one hundred 

 to one hundred and fifty specimens in a day, but last season 

 three trips were made to the home of this species and less 

 than twenty specimens in all were seen. 



Lycaena coinyntas was nowhere abundant. Other seasons 

 this creature could be seen almost anywhere. 



Thecla augustus was rarer last season than it has been for 

 the last twenty years and only four specimens were seen. 



Thacla danwn : No specimens of this species were seen by 

 me in 1908, and only a very few since 1904. In that year 

 the species was so abundant that if one would shake a cedar 

 tree, which is its food plant, in the vicinity of which it bred as 

 high as twenty specimens would fly off. Why this species 

 should become so rare the next season is a mystery to every- 

 one. In that year either the parasites or some disease must 

 have atacked them and consequently reduced them almost to 

 extinction. 



Thecla ediuardsii was not rare, but not near as common as 

 in the two previous seasons. 



Thecla titus: No examples of this species were seen by me 

 last season although search for them was made in the locality 

 where they usually occurred. 



Thecla melinns: No specimens were seen for the last three 

 seasons. 



Thecla calanus: The habitat of this species was not visit- 

 ed and consequently no specimens were seen. 



Chrysophanus hypophlacas : This species which was one 

 of our commonest butterflies not more than five years ago is 

 becoming rarer every year, and only odd specimens were no- 

 ticed last season. In 1906 it was so rare around Newark 



