1881.] 209 



Notes from Japan. — I have now returned overland to Yokohama from Awomori, 

 500 miles, having got a new Chleenius allied to Noguchii, a Bembidium near 

 articulation, and a single Miscodera, very nice, but not quite perfect. I have now 

 done north Japan (getting 680 species new to me), and intend to travel south before 

 January, and work north to the Biwa Lake as spring and summer advance. This 

 year I started northward in the beginning of June, and the Longicornia came out in 

 full burst to welcome me until I reached the most northern point, 650 miles from 

 Yokohama, in mid August. I have got all my collection here safe and am packing 

 it for England, for it is a veritable white elephant to me now. The bears troubled 

 me much in the north, for they frightened the collectors, being very numerous this 

 autumn, and came down to the houses for grapes, as food in the hills became scarce. 

 I have only one $ of Carabus Gehini, the finest here, something between Damaster 

 and C. auratus. Euchirus and Dicranocephalus do not turn up. — GrEOKG-E Lewis, 

 Yokohama : November 3rd, 1880. 



Observations on Vanessa in Japan. — In July and August, I observed in South 

 Yezo specimens of JPieris cratcegi, Vanessa Antiopa, Io, cardui, and uriicts; and it 

 may interest English entomologists to hear of these insects in Japan. They are all 

 hardy species, but if they flourish even intermittently between this and western 

 Europe, they must at times be liable to many changes of climate and conditions of life, 

 and the larvae must, I think, feed on different species of allied plants. V. Io occurs in 

 Japan as far south as Nambu, but both there and in Yezo there is a nettle which is 

 very irritating to the hand when touched, and if this plant grew further south I 

 should expect to find Io with it. But in looking at Antiopa, it may be said its food- 

 plant is found down to the south of the Archipelago, yet it does not pass thither, so 

 evidently the climate or some other cause checks it. I have seen Antiopa twice in 

 England, the last time when a few years since (1872) so many captures were 

 recorded in the Ent. Mo. Mag., and I think these periodical appearances merely 

 exhibit the ordinary method in which many Lepidoptera distribute themselves 

 when in superabundance in one locality ; and, were there no special cause prevent- 

 ing it, Antiopa would establish itself permanently in England : each one of these 

 flights is an effort to do so. Butterflies fly long distances, and merely crossing the 

 channel from France or Grermany is easily accomplished by any butterfly of Vanessa- 

 power, and their flight is after all often mere resting on the wind. I have seen 

 specimens of Papilio at sea, an hour before land was visible, in fine condition and so 

 vigorous that when approached for capture they have fluttered away and gone off 

 oceanwards, where of course they are finally lost. Now in Japan I have found 

 species occupying a limited area, from there being other animals at hand ready to 

 prey on them. An instance of this is noticeable here, for there is a total absence 

 of the Magpie, which at Shanghai and other places in China is so abundant 

 that any visitor of a few days must notice it, as it is there not in dozens but 

 hundreds, forming quite a feature in the landscape. The cause of their absence 

 here is, I think, the large crow fCorvus japonicus) which would destroy their eggs or 

 devour their young, for the latter species plunders everywhere. A short time since 

 a crow took a candle out of the lantern of my Jinrikisha, while I was eating my 

 lunch within a yard of it, and a friend of mine in Osaka has had quail stolen from 

 the frying pan by the same bird. Perhaps the cause of Antiopa not establishing 



