212 THE entomologist's record. 



have varying times of appearance is, I think, little understood. Among 

 the Neuroptera I have myself noted some strange anomalies as to their 

 times of appearance. I think that Mr. Tutt gives a very reasonable 



theory as to the scarcity of some insects during certain periods." 



Mr. E. Bowles (Waltham Cross) writes on Feb. 27th :— " About the 

 bad season of last year we have many theories to choose from, and 

 most of them have helped. I feel sure the heat of '93 upset many 

 species ; for instance, I have bred Sclenia tetrahmaria for five or six 

 seasons, and never had any difficulty with either spring or summer 

 brood. In 1893, when I went to gather in my harvest of pupse 

 towards the end of September, I was surprised to find they had all 

 emerged and the sleeves were swarming with newly hatched larvae, 

 from which I only saved about six, to carry on the breed, out of 

 thousands ; as, of course, the frost and the fall of the ash leaves 

 on which they were feeding came when most were but half grown. 

 The early part of last season was not bad in the New Forest. 

 Geometer larva^ swarmed. Catocala promissa and C. sponsa occasionally 

 fell with a musical thump into the beating-tray — they are never beaten 

 freely. I believe they feed on the top-most oak boughs, out of reach. 

 Should you be lucky enough to meet with one blown down after a 

 storm of wind, it is always galloping up the trunk. The imagines 

 were plentiful. Thecla quercus was abundant, but Asphalia ridens, 

 which swarmed the pi-evious j^ear, was almost absent — are they still in 

 pupa ? Many of the woods looked in May like they do in winter, they 

 were so stripped of leaves. In July it was quite the reverse, it was 

 hard to find an oak-leaf with a bite out of it. Thus, it is clear, 

 species whose larvae were well-fed before the excessive heat of 

 1893 commenced were not scarce in 1894 ; whereas species whose 

 larval period corresponded with the spell of hot weather failed 

 to appear in many cases in 1894. I have somewhere come 

 across a theory that in wet years, the eggs of lepidoptera are laid 

 in more sheltered places, instead of in the open, and thus the young 



larvf\i gain protection. It seems to me very likely to be true." 



Mr. Maddison (South Bailey, Durham), writes on March 4th : — 

 " Speaking of this district, I should say the scarcity of insects in 1894, 

 arose from several causes. (1). The extreme hot weather prevailing 

 in 1893, must have thoroughly baked many puj^aj, especially those of 

 NooTUiE, whose larva3 do not go deeply into the ground. Many larv?e, 

 from the same cause, must have perished in trying to find a suitable 

 place in which to pupate, and there must have been others of the later- 

 feeding species which were too far forward and not able to hybernate, 

 and so died. (2). The very bad frosts here at the end of May and early 

 in June (1894), killed all the young leaves on the oaks, birches, &c., and 

 young larvte must have perished in thousands. I had several hundreds 

 of young larvae sleeved out on various trees and shrubs in my garden, 

 and lost nearly all of them in two nights. A lot of ova did not hatch 

 out. (3). With the exception of a few days, July and August and 

 most of September were cold, wet and sunless here, and larva? grew 

 very slowly, and many died. I had a brood of Psilnramonacha, which 

 (sleeved out on whitethorn almost from the egg), did not pupate till 

 October, and the imagines (the jjupa? having been removed to a warm 

 room) emerged in November, all of them tindersizfd, and nearly all 

 cripples. In the same way a brood of Folia Jiavicincta sleeved out 



