RETROSPECT OF A LEPIDOPTEEIST. 175 



specimens must have been captured. Not only has this been so, but 

 larvje have been obtained in considerable numbers during the late 

 autumn in the south-western counties, thus showing that the insect 

 appears to pass the winter here in the pupal stage, as it does on the 

 Continent. Arhcrontia atrnpos has not been uncommon, whilst the 

 Hon. F, Thellusson records not only the successful capture of 

 imagines, but the successful beating of the larvte of SjiJiin.r pinastri in 

 the pine-woods of Suffolk. Chcu'rocaiii pa rdcrio Sbud Lhilt'pJiilalinn-nira 

 have been recorded in our pages ; but, in spite of all attempts, no 

 Suwrmtlnis Dcvllatm-popidi hybrids have been bred. Among the 

 Arctiids, Callimorpha hera has proved " the moth " of the season. Mr. 

 G. T. Porritt was to the fore in breeding the species, a large brood 

 having been successfully hybernated, and above a couple of hundred 

 moths (so it was stated at one of the South London Society's meetings) 

 bred therefrom. It turned up in moderate abundance again in August, 

 and Mr. Hewett records some two thousand two hundred and sixty- 

 one eggs from his captures. 



It is, however, among the Noctuides that the greatest successes of 

 the season are to be counted. First and foremost is the capture of 

 Mesn(jnna acrtasi'llaf, a species new to the British list, captured by Mr. 

 T. Salvage, at Arlington, in Sussex. Next stands the capture of 

 Xi/liiia lambda. One hears of Viminia alhorennsa as being so abundant 

 at Wicken that the captor ceased because he became tired of taking so 

 many specimens of one species ; the insect was equally abundant in 

 both broods. Then one hears of fifty specimens of PacJwtra IcucopJiaca, 

 and nearly as many Ai/mtis cinerea, in a night or two in the Wye 

 District, in the first days of June, and yet for years they have been — 

 nay, still are — among our rare moths. A few Cuspidia alni larvte are 

 reported, but domestication has caused this to cease from being a rare 

 species. Lewania obsoli'ta has been exceedingly rare, but Xonai/na 

 cannae was more abundant than usual in its haunts at Horning Fen, 

 and we hear of large numbers of pupte having been taken. Most of 

 the summer species were fairly abundant, and Plmia moncta occurred 

 in sufficient abundance in Kent to place it in the market (the ultimate 

 fate of all our rare British insects). Two cases of breeding Cucullia 

 gnaphalii have come to hand, one from a Surrey, the other from 

 a Kent locality. But it was not till the autumn that insects positively 

 swarmed at sugar in the South. They continued to do so in the 

 North, and, indeed, had done so nearly all summer. In Shetland, 

 Noctua glairosa ab. KUff'asa and XoctuacDuflua were abundant, and many 

 (Jri/iiiodcs c.rulis were taken. In Orkney nothing very special occurred 

 except hl?Lck Hadoia aduxta, and some pretty Noctuid species — at present 

 recorded as Xoctua festira, but evidently including two other species. 

 On the Scotch coasts, in June and July, Noctuids were literally in 

 thousands — Xortua depuncta, X. sobrina, Tnjphaena .subseqiia, &c. ; on 

 the South coasts, in September, A//rotis nbe,luca and Apuropfn/la 

 a>(.st rails were in the greatest profusion, whilst Leucanla albipuncta 

 occurred on the coasts of the Isle of Wight in numbers hitherto quite 

 unknown ; nor was it confined thereto, for the coasts of Kent also 

 produced a share. Inland, Xanthia ncdlaris occurred in many 

 localities — -Gloucestershire, Surrey, Kent, Suffolk, among others — and 

 their variation is very interesting, scarcely two specimens being quite 

 alike, whilst three or four more Catucala/ra.fuu have been added to 

 the few recorded British captures. 



