152 PHENOLOGICAL KECORDS FOE 1893. 



The unusually warm weather of the earlj spring led to 

 some remarkably early emergences of the Lepidoptera ; in 

 fact, nearly all the species wore three Aveeks or a month 

 before their usual time of appearance. The effect of this 

 early spring and of the great summer heat which followed 

 was that spring larvsB were early in hatching and rapid in 

 growth, with the result that some species, usually single 

 brooded, became double-brooded or partially so, whilst species 

 normally double-brooded, in several cases perfected their 

 third brood. The end of the season was somewhat dis- 

 appointing, as larvjB were by no means abundant, whilst the 

 greater portion of the imagines were over before the autumn 

 months. I captured a fine female specimen of our local 

 hook-tip, Drepana sicula, on the 23rd May, this being the 

 earliest date on which the species has been recorded in 

 Eno-land. From her I obtained some ova, and was fortunate 

 in rearing the larvae, which pupated about the middle of 

 July. As some of the hook-tips are double-brooded, I 

 thought it possible that some racths from these pupce might 

 emerge in the autumn, and on the 16th October I bred a 

 male, this being, I believe, the only instance of an autumn 

 emergence in this country, though the species is double- 

 brooded on the Continent. 



