mi.] 259 



fProbiibly P. hianor Crauiev, a species iiiliabitiii^' (Miiiia, Korea and Japan, 

 specimens of which have been captured or seen at large near Lewes, Sussex, in 

 June hist, cf. E. J. Redford, Ent. Record, xxix, p. 184 (Sept. lo, 1917). We 

 have also heard of it from Horsham, Sarisbury Green (near Southampton), 

 Hishop's "Waltliam, Roystou, Ilenley-on-Tliames, Bracknell, and Shepperton. 

 INIr. Bedford su^'-gests that the Lewes examples may be some of those that 

 escaped from the exhibition-cages in the Zoological Gardens, London. — Eds.] 



The seasoji of 1917. — Once more the old adage "A severe winter is the 

 forerunner of a good Entomological season" haa been fully justified, for in 

 this district, and from what I hear in most others also, Lepidoptera have not 

 been so abundant for very many yeai's. An accident to my left knee at the 

 beginning of February prevented nij' doing much outside my own garden, but 

 I think I have seen more Lepidoptera in the garden this year than in all the 

 previous nine years I have been here. Tiie Tortrices were in great force, 

 tlie chief of them being the somewl)at local Sciaphila conspersiina. The garden 

 in one part is bordered by a wood fence on which from end to end in one part 

 of July this species abounded, and every tap at any branch of the row of 

 apple-trees alongside it brought out numbers, I could have taken hundreds 

 a day of it during- the time the flight was at its full. Mr. L. S. Brady 

 tells me he had just a similar experience this year with this species at 

 Sheffield. The moth varied very much, from quite dark to a few almost 

 as white as the Kent coast form ; some were bright black-and-white and very 

 similar to S. octomaculana. With them ^S". pascuayui was also very abundant. 

 Outside the fence is a large grass meadow in which the larvae of both species 

 had no doubt fed. Immediately preceding these species, jS". viryuitrecuta had 

 been almost equally plentiful. Various members of the genus Tovtrix were in 

 crowds, and sometimes at dusk were dancing around the trees in sucli swarms 

 as I have never before seen. Tliis is a poor district for butterflies, but the 

 three common species of Pierls were all plentiful, although hrassioae was not 

 unusually so until the second brood. A few Vanessa urticae and V. to, both 

 usually of rare occurreuce here, were about, and V. atalanta was fairly 

 common. Of Geometers Tanarjra afrata was in profusion all over the district, 

 and was very much in evidence day after day even in the main roails almost in 

 tlie town. Immediately following the larvae of Abraxas (/rossuluriata, too, the 

 gooseberry -bushes were attacked by the larvae of Ilalia vanaria in excessive 

 numbers. The larvae of the Noctua Charaeas granmds, too, must liave fed 

 very freely on the grasses in the lowlands, as well as on the hills (see Ent. 

 Mo. Mag. August 1917, p. 176), for the moth occurred in profusion all around 

 and almost in the town, at the end of July and in August. During the ten 

 minutes or so before the "obscuring of lights" in the evening, they came 

 freely to my house lights, when quite a number could be seen together on a 

 single window-pane. Another lepidopterist here told me that he had to close 

 his windows in the evening, as graminis came in such crowds as to smother his 

 gas lights ! Single specimens o'i Acker out ia atrupos and Sphinx convolvuli have 

 occurred with us. In other parts of the county two J'anessa a/diopa have 

 been taken— one near Bradford, the other at Bingley. Dr. II. II. Corbctt tells 

 me that Sphinx convolndi was fairly common at Doncaster, and it has also been 

 captured in one or more specimens at Shelliold, Barnsley, Bingley, and other 

 places. As illustrating the South of England, my old friend Mr, ('. M. 

 Mayor of Dawlish writes me :— '" 1 have never in the course of over twenty- 



