NOTES UN COLLECTING, ETC. 225 



from Tewkesbury : — " We all seem to agree that the season is a very bad 

 one. Sugar is a total failure, but as I have often foiind this to be the 

 case until the elder is out of bloom, we may do better presently. Still, 



undoubtedly, things are very scarce." On July 2nd, Mr. Corbett 



writes from Doncaster: — "This season is a woefully bad one for 

 imagines. I have sugared on all sorts of nights — wet and fine, warm 

 and cold, calm and windy, dark and bright — and all have been alike 



bad. Beating produces a few common geometers and micros." 



On July 7th, Mr. E. A. Atmore writes from King's Lynn: — "Of late, 

 there has been considerable improvement in the weather, and insects 

 have been very abundant. Macro-lepidoptera seem to be more plentiful 

 here than they have been for several years. Sugar has recently attracted 

 swarms of common species, but very few species worth taking. The 

 outlook just now is not promising — heavy rain last night and again this 

 morning, with a low barometer, and the mercury, alas ! still sinking." 



On July KJth, Mr. Freer reports from Kugeley : — " Matters are 



a little better. I got about thirty Lithosia raesomeUa the other day, and 

 four Notodontii dictaeolAes ; I also saw Plnsla interroyationis fLyhigvonnd 



honeysuckle. Light seems a complete failure this year." On 



July 17th, Mr. Mason writes from Clevedon : — " Collecting has certainly 

 improved this last fortnight, but sugar is still a failure, possibly owing 

 to the quantity of limes in flower. My row of lavender will soon be at 

 its best, but it is not so attractive as usual. I have turned up Peri- 

 nephele lancealis this season, in some numbers, in a marshy plantation, 

 but though the locality has been regularly worked by myself and others 

 for the last ten years, I have never seen or heard of a sj)ecimen bein^)- 



taken before. I beat the insects from Eupatormm cannabinum." 



On July 26th, Dr. Riding writes : — " The season here is as bad as an}'- 

 I remember. All methods of capture fail —even light, which is geuei'ally 

 more or less successful here. I hear from friends in Scotland that they 



have been having a good time." On July 26th, Capt. Eobertson 



writes from Cheltenham : — " I have just returned from Sw^ansea, where 

 I went after Calymnia pyralina, but did not see a single sj^ecimen. I 

 also tried my trap every night with the same result. I never remember 

 having such a bad season. About the only thing I took at sugar was 

 a veiy unusual visitor to the sweets, Cossus Ugniperda, which was un- 

 doubtedly either sucking or smelling it. I also took Acronycta {Cmpidia) 

 leporina, which is new to my list of Swansea insects. Day-hunting, 

 only periodical, yielded a couple of Ilydrelia imcula, and a var. of 

 Epinephele ianira, with a white patch on the right fore- wing. I tried 



larva-beating but got nothing." On July 29th, Mr. Greer reports 



from Bath : — " Insects seem to be scarcer than usual this year. 

 Amongst others, I have taken the following : — Hepialus fiyhmii.-^, rrocris 

 geryon, Nndaria mundana, Hdetiia luiuiria, Geoiuetra vernaria, Lohophi>ra 

 sexalisata, Cainptoijrainma Jiaridta, Scotosia uadidata, Leucania pudoriiKi 

 Coeaobia rnfa, Didntlioecia carpophiKja, and D. cucubali. Tlie majority 



of the Nocture were taken at light, sugar proving a total failure." — 



On August 2nd, Mr. A. W. Mera writes : — " I have just returned from 

 a visit to the Suffolk coast, and like most of my brctlireu, have found 

 insects much less abundant than usual. Sugar was no good ; nearly all 

 the NoctuEe I took were attracted to some flowering grass growing by 

 the shore. On one or two nights common things were reftlh^ abundant, 

 but the weather was generally too boisterous to do much. The only 



