ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, CAPTURES, &c. 



Abundance of Pierid^. — I can fully corroborate the accounts 

 which have lately appeared in the 'Entomologist' about the 

 abundance of the Pieridse duriug the past summer. I have 

 hardly ever seen them before in such extraordinary numbers 

 as they were at the beginning of August last. On the Oth of 

 that month I was at HurstiDierpoint, and in going along a lane I 

 came ujion a small pool, the remaining water in which had 

 apparently only just been dried up, for the mud was just moist. 

 This was covered with scores of " whites," which were regaling 

 themselves upon its foul delicacies, while a perfect cloud were 

 hovering in the air above. It was a remarkable sight, for they 

 must have been in countless numbers, as this white cloud of 

 hovering butterflies caught my attention when some distance from 

 the pool. I was not altogether surprised at the phenominal 

 abundance of the butterfly this season after the enormous quan- 

 tity of larvae that I noticed last autumn (Entom. xix. 299). This 

 autumn, however, although the images have been so plentiful all 

 the summer, I have seen hardly any larvae at all, and have 

 been struck by their entire absence in some localities. I have 

 not, I may add, seen Culms edusa at all this year, and have found 

 Vanessa atalanta remarkably scarce, having seen only about six 

 specimens in all. I have also failed to meet with a single V. carclui 

 for the second summer running, although I found it so common 

 in 1885 wherever I collected. — W. H. Blaber ; Beckworth, 

 Liudfield, Sussex, November 3, 1887. 



CoLiAS EDUSA. — I had not seen a living specimen of Colias 

 edusa since the great year 1877, until the year before last, when I 

 captured a fine specimen of var. lielice in the " Devil's Ditch," 

 close to Newmarket Heath. Last year my late father saw two in 

 " Flem Dyke," Fulbourn, one of which was cai)tured by a young 

 friend collecting with him. — W. Farren ; 14, King's Parade, 

 Cambridge. 



Vanessid^ in the Black Country. — Although I have been 

 a collector of Lepidoptera for a great number of years in this 

 part of Staffordshire, 1 never saw Vanessa io till 1884, when I 

 saw a few specimens flying about in the August of that year. In 

 July, 1885, 1 found four numerous broods of larvic, about two 



