1888.] 185 



characters for Lis Family Atropida (Edinburgh Encyc, vol. ix) were 

 simply " tarsi three-jointed," and the type of his genus Atropos is 

 " lignaria^'' with the citations '"'' Termes pulsatorium, L.," and '"''Termes 

 lignarium, De Geer." On this evidence I am inclined to think Kolbe 

 may be justified in the view he has taken, but such a change is ex- 

 ceedingly inconvenient. The insect described by De Geer and Linne 

 is certainly that which we now term " ClotMlla pulsatoriay Trocies 

 of Burmeister is also certainly identical with what we term Atropos. 

 I believe Kolbe's views will have to be adopted. 



Lewisham, London : 



December, 1882. 



Notes on certain captures dttring the past season in the Forest of Dean. — Out 

 of fifteen successive seasons I cannot recall one in which the months of May, June 

 and July yielded so small a harvest to the working Lepidopterist. And this is the 

 more surprising, because, in the preceding year, examples of the commoner species 

 that frequent this district were easily obtainable, and most of them abundant. 

 But although larvae were then so numerous here, observations made at the time 

 led me not to expect more than a nomial number of imagos from the devouring 

 host, for destroyers of one kind or other were as ubiqvutous as their victims, 

 and the traces of their handiwork quite as apparent. Nevertheless, certain early 

 spring moths proved to be plentiful, so that, when noticing frequently on the 

 oak trunks during February, March, and the first fortnight of April, N. his- 

 pidaria, P. pilosaria, H. 2irogemmaria, H. lencophcBaria, I little thought that, 

 at the close of 1882, my list of captured Lepidoptera would turn out to be such 

 a small one. This, however, is the case. Since mid-April the dearth of but- 

 terflies and moths has been, at least, as marked in this part as in those other portions 

 of our islands from which complaints on the subject have found their way into the 

 Magazine, so that thei-e lias been little or no inducement to carry the usual para- 

 phernalia of a Lepidopterist during one's rambles in the woodland. To be sure, 

 just before and after that date, A. prodromaria and C. ridens were now and then 

 met with, after, in each case, a most diligent search ; but, then, these captures are 

 miserably insignificant if placed side by side with those made at corresponding dates 

 in 1881, when one evening, after two hours' work, a collector returned home with 

 thirty picked specimens of A. prodromaria, and, for want of space, left quite double 

 that number on the moss, where they had just attained their full development. In 

 fact, I have not used the net throughout the season, and this not through inability 

 or indisposition, but because the weather was felt to be of such a kind, as to make 

 it exceedingly probable that no adequate return would be gained by that method of 

 collecting. To take the insects mentioned above a few pill boxes sufficed. From 

 the 1st May onwards my total captures in the order do not amount to double figures, 

 as it is little use (if any) to take of the commonest species more than enough for 

 one's own series. Scanty as this number is, it includes an insect whose occurrence 

 may be worth recording, namely, a very fine example of A. ahii on the afternoon of 



