136 [November, 



and bristly hairs : by the third day after hatching the black acquires more colour of 

 rather greenish-grey, the belly still translucent ; the first two pairs of ventral lega 

 are at first not in use and but little developed, and the larva often rests in a looping 

 position and walks like a semi-looper. They readily feed on plantain, dock, and grass. 



" After their Jirst moult, on the 26th, when they were a week old, their bodies 

 were of a drab-green, with the head and plate light brown, altogether less 

 translucent, and with dark brown hairs as before, still looping without using the 

 less developed first two pairs of ventral legs. 



"By the 31st they had moulted a second time and now showed a pale spiracular 

 stripe and the belly rather translucent, above on back and sides green with paler 

 dorsal and subdorsal lines, head pale. Length \ inch, by September 3rd fully | inchl 

 long with the green of the back more opaque, the pale lines edged with darker, 

 especially above the pale spiracular stripe. Only a few of the larvae at this date 

 answer to this description, as many have yet to get over this moult. 



" September 5th ; 15 had moulted the third time, and were now possessed with 

 all the characteristic markings of Triphana pronuba. 



"September 9th; a few had just moulted the fourth time, others waiting to | 

 moult." 



Mr. Buckler kindly sent me with these notes one larva in the third moult and 

 one in the fourth moult. These larva? had now ceased to loop and used all their 16 

 legs in walking as a sensible larva of T. pronuba should do. 



Having felt a lively interest in these larva? from their semi-looping habit in 

 infancy, I put the question to Mr. Buckler whether he was acquainted with any 

 other newly hatched 16-legged larva, which were also given to semi-looping? 



His reply to this query is of extreme interest : — 



" In reply to your enquiry I can say that the larvse of Tceniocampa opima when 

 young are semi-loopers, from not using the first two pairs of ventral legs, so also are! 

 the larvse of Phlogophora meticulosa and no doubt those of many other species, but 1 

 these are the latest instances I have observed." — H. T. Stainton, Mountsfield, I 

 Lewisham : September 15th, 1880. 



Notes on Lepidoptera in Yorkshire in 1880. — At the end of the season it is 

 natural and necessary to put our notes and captures together, so that we may see ] 

 how we stand in relation to the science we take an interest in, and note whether we \ 

 have anything worth recording. It is an observed fact that there is great variation I 

 in the appearance of insects. Species common to one year are scarce the next, jj 

 whilst others, which have been scarce for a year or more, again appear in great \ 

 numbers ; how to account for this irregularity seems in the present state of our I 

 knowledge scarcely possible : we should reasonably expect from an abundance of I 

 one season an increase in the next, and so on, but we find the reverse of this the 

 case, species one year plentiful, the following wanting or rare. Speaking to a gentleman 

 the other day this subject came under our notice; he suggested the idea that < 

 they were affected by atmospheric influence ; the egg or pupal stage required 

 certain conditions of atmosphere to suit their existence and bring them forward, 

 and without these were present they would remain in a dormant state for a limited 

 or lengthened period. 



The following insects have being noticed by me as been common in this locality 



