G-l [Augustii 



Mlgnilioii of Insects. —The time lias come for us (so it seems to mo) to leave' 

 ofP theories on this subject, and to keep to facts ; to record very carefullj every 

 observation bearing on the point, as well as on those wonderful sudden abundances 

 of species which sometimes occur ; every entomologist must have noticed such. 

 Mr. Slainton did service by recording the swarms of Lycwna Phlaas which visited 

 Lewisham a few years ago. I remember myself one season the hedge which lines 

 the well-known drive to Mountsfield being nearly leafless from Cheimafobia brumata.\ 

 This is specially mentioned, because the character of the female puts her beyond the 

 faintest suspicion of any migration. About ten summers ago the hawthorn here 

 was perfectly devastated by the larva? of Sivammerdamia caesiella ; it then became 

 quite a scarce insect for a year or two. It seems to me a demonstrable fact, and one 

 which may be laid down as a basis for observation, that every insect, rare or common, 

 may become, from causes unknown at present to us, unusually abundant, quite in- 

 dependent of any migration. Let us, thei-efore, now no longer theorize, but observe 

 and record facts, however trivial they may seem, bearing on the point ; press the 

 lighthouses into our service ; and not suppose that migration explains everything. 

 In fact, it explains nothing. There are not armies of Aporia cratcegi waiting afci 

 Calais or Dieppe for a favourable wind to invade our coasts ; if there were, their 

 concerted action would be the real mastery : butterflies are not, like locusts, impelled 

 by the devastation of their own swarme to move onwards. The cause is the true 

 marvel ! — Id. 



Notes on Pancalia Latreillella and P. Leetiiven/ioekella. — Mr. Stainton (Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., xxi, p. 193) asked for the observations of entomologists on the above 

 species. As no one has, I believe, since published any notes on them, and having 

 recently taken the species in considerable plenty, tlie following notice may be of' 

 interest to 3'our readers. 



Guided bv the Manual, and by reference to tlie Doubleday Collection, some six 

 years ago, when I first captured Pancalia LeemoenhoekeUa, I divided my scries into 

 two lots, one containing all the specimens with dark antenna?, the other the speci- 

 mens witli a white ring before the tip. The arrangement was purely artificial, as I 

 took the form with dark antennse at the same time and place as those with white 

 ringed antennte. The former I called Latreillella, the latter Leeuwenhoelcella. 



On Saturday last (June 4th) I took a fine series of this species on the Chalk 

 Downs near Strood in Kent. The males were flying about soon after mid-day in the 

 hot sunshine, and the females wei-e running about over and among the grass, but I 

 could see none deposit eggs. They seemed -very restless, and took short jerky flights 

 from one culm to the other, running frequently down among the lower part of the 

 culms, whence it was not easy to get them to stir. I found two specimens on the 

 dogwood {Cormis sangninea) flowers. 



Having got them liome, I found I had captured altogether twenty-three speci- 

 mens, of which t?iree have dark fuscous unicolorous antenna?,/oMr have the white 

 ring just before the tip of the antenna; very faintly marked, and in one nearly 

 obliterated, whilst the others have the white ring very distinct. The finest have a 

 slight thickening just below the white ring of the antenna;, but I see no long scales 

 there, although the tliickening is distinct. The antennse of these are very charac- 

 teristic, being fuscous at the base, black in tlie centre (tliis is the thickened part), 



