NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 89 



intervals shining brightly on the sugared trees, and the insects appar- 

 ently enjoying it. 1 think, however, the moon affects light collecting, 

 as it diminishes the power of the lamp so much. The reason the 

 moon gets so much abuse is simply this. When it is a cold, clear 

 night and there is a moon, you always see it ; in fact, you don't see 

 much else except the moon and its shadows. When it is a warm night 

 you don't very often see the moon if there is one, as it is usually 

 cloudy. I daresay few collectors will agree with me, but this is at 

 present my theory, and it will be interesting to hear what more ex- 

 perienced collectors have to say. — A. Robinson, i, Mitre Court 

 Buildings, Temple, E.G. May, 1891. 



Uncertain appearance of certain Lepidoptera. — With regard to 

 Mr. Holland's remarks on Melitma aiirinia (vol. ii., p. 67), it is a most 

 variable insect in its appearance here. There is one particular field, 

 where it sometimes swarms ; this was the case in 1888, in 1889 only a 

 few were to be found, and last year not one. But I believe it will turn 

 up again, as the same thing has happened before. — ii. C. Dobree Fox. 

 April, 1 89 1. 



I could write pages on the disappearance of insects which were 

 common in my early collecting days in localities from which they have 

 long departed, but it is a wide subject and will bear no hasty generali- 

 sation. The vagaries of species like Aporia cratcBgi, Lyc(Z7ia acts, 

 Endroniis versicolor, Aleucis pictaria, Mo?na orion, Cuspidia alni, 

 Eniwnios autiimtiaria, Eupithccia dodoneata, Ariiyrolepia schreibersiana , 

 Papilio machaon, Epunda tiigra, E. luiulenfa, Dicycla 00, etc., would 

 fill a good sized volume. Near all large towns the ever increasing smoke 

 must have a great effect, and this is remarkable in the London district, 

 but there are other causes, of which we have at present but a faint 

 idea. — C. Fenn, Lee. April, 1891. 



As to the disappearance of species from a locality, I can give but one 

 instance. In the summer of 1888, Frocris statices was extremely 

 abundant in a meadow at Enborne (Newbury). For two or three days 

 the place seemed alive with them, and it was curious to remark that all 

 the moths seemed flying in one direction, although there was no wind 

 whatever. In 1889, I visited the same locality constantly, hoping to 

 get more P. statices, but I only saw one specimen, and last year I saw 

 none at all. I have worked for the species in the fields lying to the 

 S.W. .of their former habitat, as the general flight of the insects was in 

 that direction in 1888, but have failed hitherto to discover them in any 

 fresh spot. It will be interesting to find if, in the coming season, they 

 reappear in their former locality, or in another in the same district. — 

 M. KiMBER, Cope Hall, Newbury. April, 1891. 



Twenty years ag'^ Plusia festucce was to be had in almost unlimited 

 numbers in the larval and pupal stages in the Warrington district. I 

 have heard my father speak of breeding hundreds in a season from pupae 

 obtained here. I have myself seen evidence of their former abundance, 

 a deplorable ring of closely packed P. festucce. in a wall-case, bodiless, 

 and wholly given up to mites. Now we seldom take more than half-a- 

 dozen imagines a year; the only pupse got of late were five in 1889. 

 Formerly their particular locality was a tortuous, winding, slow-flowing 

 brook or rivulet, with Carex growing in luxuriant masses from its sides. 

 Such, I am told, was the paradise where P. festuccz revelled in numbers, 



