232 [October, 



Local Lists. —One would most certainly suppose that all workers in the broad 

 field of British Entomology do most strenuously endorse Mr. Barrett's remarks 

 {ante p. 187), and there is but one reason for not doing so, which is, that a certain 

 school of the more advanced students of the science do but little field work. Every 

 Collector loves surely to have something to go on. When he first visits a new 

 locality his first question runs — "Is there a list of its Insect Fauna?" When told 

 yes, he hastens to obtain a copy, in which he finds (if the list is drawn up as a 

 list should be) every species hitherto taken there, notes as to its distribution, with 

 exact localities and references to all works and periodicals in which it is mentioned 

 from that particular county or district. As Mr. Adkin very justly says, accuracy is 

 a sine qua non, as indeed it is throughout the whole gamut of entomological record 

 and research, and interesting notes and quotations certainly make a reference- 

 work more readable, but at the same time bulkier and hence less handy. Every 

 field entomologist who cannot appreciate the value of a reliable list of the insects of 

 the district he happens to be working, must have his bump of originality and 

 pioneerism abnormally developed! — Claude Moeley, Everton House, Ipswich: 

 September 6th^ 1897. 



Position of ovipositing Satyrus Semele. — It is just possible that the above 

 may have escaped the notice of Lepidopterists, though that such is the case is, in 

 view of their numbers, not very probable. I had great facilities for observing the 

 females of this species during oviposition at the extreme point of Beachy Head last 

 August, and was much struck by the peculiar and (one would think) uncomfortable 

 position invariably assumed. The insect would fly some three yards and, alighting 

 on the grass, remain immoveable for about two minutes ; then she would suddenly 

 begin to walk till, espying a suitable blade, she seized one near. Letting herself 

 down by muscular force, like a man on the horizontal bar, she curved her abdomen 

 beneath her and, extending it, carefully placed a white egg on the selected stem. 

 With a jerk she stood on her legs again and, after waiting for a moment as though 

 to regain " breath," flapped away to the nest favoured tuft of grass. The extremely 

 backward position of the anterior wings is also notable. — Id. 



London sulurlan Lepidoptera. — Yor some years London entomologists have 

 become mournfully conscious of a great decrease in the number of species obtainable 

 in the suburbs. Whether caused by extended building or the smoke of continually 

 augmented numbers of chimneys, or by the ubiquitous sparrows, it has long been 

 obvious that with increasing tree accommodation there is a sad decrease in insect 

 tenants. It is, therefore, with some gratification that I chronicle any (even the 

 smallest) indication of a return of species to old haunts. Smerinthus populi had 

 become almost a rarity here for several years ; this season the moths have been seen 

 on the tree trunks as of old, and the larva is certainly more generally in evidence. 

 Then <S. ocellatus, in the larva state, has re-appeared both on sallows and willows, 

 and several larvse, wandering in search of a soft place to bury in, Iiave been picked 

 up in the road close to my house. No doubt they came from the willow bushes on 

 the water-works embankment. S. tilim larvae have also been found, but this is not 

 a re-occupation, since the species is always resident with us. The scarcity of moths on 

 the wing has been most extraordinary, but of this complaints come from the country 



