XI. 



NOTES OX LEPIDOPTERA OBSERVED IN nERTFORDSEIRE 

 DURING THE YEAR 1893. 



By A. E. GiBBs, F.L.S., F.E.S. 



Read at Watford, VJth April, 1894. 



The unusual meteorological conditions prevailing during 1893 

 had, as might have been expected, considerable influence on insect 

 life, the dry warm spring causing many species to emerge a full 

 month before their usual time. 



I did not find that the sallows in March and April were very 

 prolific, repeated visits to Bricket Wood for sallow-beating 

 yielding only the common Taeniocampse and a few hybernated 

 moths. A female twin-spot quaker {Toiniocampa mundd), however, 

 taken at sallow, gave me some eggs from which I reared a good 

 series of that moth. Sugaring during the summer was a failure, 

 a fact which is emphasized by several of my correspondents. I 

 spread the tempting bait in more than one locality near St. Albans, 

 but it did not attract any of the rarer Lepidoptera. Mr. C. F. 

 Pilbrow, of Colney Heath, writes : "I scarcely missed sugaring for 

 a single evening, though the area was generally very limited — 

 about half-a-dozen apple trees and plum trees of good size in my 

 garden. The results were unusually unsatisfactory," Mr. K. W. 

 Bowyer, of Haileybury, says : " Sugaring and light were almost 

 failures in the summer. In the autumn I did better. I took at 

 sugar five Noctua rhomhoidea, an insect which I consider rare in 

 this neighbourhood." These opinions as to the failure of sugar 

 in the spring and summer are confirmed by the statements in 

 the entomological magazines of observers in various parts of the 

 country. Mr. B,. Dymond, of Perney House, East Bamet, how- 

 ever, appears to have been more fortunate. He says : " So far as 

 I am concerned the season has been very good, for at sugar in the 

 garden here insects have been very plentiful." Mr. Bowyer's 

 experience as to the failure of light as an attraction for insects is 

 not shared by Mr. Pilbrow, for with regard to the Colney Heath 

 district he writes: "Light, speaking generally, proved the most 

 productive source of attraction this year." The same gentleman 

 reports that " old sacks, boxes, etc., placed about the garden proved 

 fertile traps, several good things being tak(;n by these means." 

 Larvse-beating had unusually prolific results, at least in the 

 number, if not in the rarity, of the insects taken, while for pupae- 

 digging the season is generally pronounced to have been a most 

 unproductive one. 



The great abundance of larva) in the early months of 1893 is a 

 matter of common repute. Those of us who took part in the field 

 meeting at Symond's Hyde, in May, will remember the enormous 

 quantity of caterpillars, mostly "loopcrs," which were feeding on 

 the hazel and hornbeam. I could have collected thousands of the 

 commoner sorts in a few hours. I think I never saw the oaks at 



