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LEPIDOPTERA. 



New British Species in 1857, 



(By the Editor.) 



In spite of a summer, which, for brilliant weather and heat, 

 the Registrar General reports to have been quite unpre- 

 cedented, our c^op of novelties is unusually poor. Insects 

 have generally been abundant, many rare species in tolerable 

 numbers, but of novelties we have hardly any amongst the 

 31acro-Lepidoptera. 



Probably, if half the energy which has been expended 

 in the pursuit of Phlogophora Empyrea (a novelty two 

 years ago, and figured in the Annual of 1856), had been ex- 

 pended in the search for fresh novelties, we might have had 

 a better list to produce to our readers. 



No doubt much of the increase of Entomological zeal which 

 at present exists in the country is expended on the Rhopalo- 

 cera, but we presume, when these incipients have obtained all 

 the British butterflies (and we believe few collections are so 

 poor as not to contain reputed British specimens of Lathonia 

 and other rarities), they will turn their attention to the Bom- 

 byces and Xoctuce, and when the " sugaring" force of the 

 country is annually recruited by 200 pairs of hands, results 

 of some sort must follow ; either the Noctuce will share in 

 the extinction which now seems likely soon to overtake the 

 British butterflies, or local and hitherto undetected species 

 will reward the diligence of the midnight prowler. 



The extinction of the butterflies is by no means so im- 



