NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 277 



produced disease in the specimens operated on, and that this disease 

 had been accompanied by partial melanism, as almost all the perfect 

 specimens were richly coloured, and the more or less crippled specimens 

 were dark. His J>aJ>er was meant to prove that cold had produced the 

 melanism, which it indirectly had done, if the cold was the cause of the 

 general crippling apparent. Mr. Baker referred certain Lyccence to 

 Thechi, basing his conclusions on the fact that the neuration of the 

 Lycccnids removed, were identical with that of Thecla, and differed from 

 all other species in Lyccsna. Mr. Bateson had made experiments on the 

 coloration of cocoons of Eriogaster lanesiris and Saturnia cat-piiii, and 

 attempted to disprove Mr. Poulton's hypothesis, that the larvae of these 

 species could spin either a pale or dark coloured cocoon according to 

 their surroundings. His paper is sure to lead to further experiment in 

 this direction. 



Deikphila livornica is recorded from Carrow, near Norwich, having 

 come to the light of an electric lamp in September. This species is 

 generally captured in or near nurserymen's gardens in England, and 

 are undoubtedly imported in the earlier stages. I have two pairs thus 

 captured. 



Apamea ophiogramma larvre (identified by Mr. South) are said to 

 have been taken in September, in Nottingham, and buried in cocoa-nut 

 fibre about October 14th, but had not pupated ten days after {Ent., p. 

 298). This is rather strange after Mr. Battley's experience, Etit. Rec, 

 ante, p. 19 r, Perhaps these larviE will, when the moths appear, prove 

 to be some species other than ophiogramma. Mr. Gardner has captured 

 the rare Boiys lupulinalis and NepJiopteryx splendidella at Hartlepool. 



Mr. N. M. Richardson {E.M.M.) publishes the life-history of 

 Plutella annulaiella. 



Mr. Douglas describes a new species of Ahurodes {A. rubiada) from 

 Blackheath ; whilst Mr. Newstead exhibited no less than six new species 

 of Coccidce at the meeting of the Lancashire Society, on November 9th. 



An extensive partial double-brood of Staiiropus fagi has occurred at 

 Reading this autumn, a considerable number having been bred and 

 captured during October by Messrs. Holland and Clarke. One was 

 captured by Mr. Barnes as late as November 6th. 



The papers on " Melanism and Melanochroismin British Lepidoptera" 

 have been reprinted, and can now be had bound in cloth for 2s. 6d. 



OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Retrospect of a Lepidopterist for 1S91. — The year 1S91 is 

 drawing to a close, and again I would draw the attention of our 

 lepidopterists to a brief summary of the year's work. From a collector's 

 point of view, the season has varied excessively with the locality, and 

 comparatively near localites have differed remarkably. Taken all round, 

 the season has been, perhaps, a better collecting season than last, in 

 spite of the fact that 1891 will be long remembered by meteorologists 

 as the year in which summer never came. Our Kent collectors send 

 up a wail of woe ; so, also, do the Scotch lepidopterists. Not one 

 redeeming feature seems to have enlivened the hearts of the workers on 

 the south-east coast, the north-east coast (Aberdeenshire) and Liverpool. 



