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LEPIDOPTERA. 



Notes on New and Rare British Lepidoptera 

 (excepting Tineina) in 1871. 



By H. Guard Knaggs, M.D., F.L.S. 



Again the festive season at which it is customary to pay off 

 scores, to bury animosities, to entertain, to be entertained, to 

 spin yarns, and, in fact, to do everything in our power to 

 add to the happiness and comfort of everybody (inckiding 

 ourselves), is drawing near ; and the warmth within and the 

 cold without remind me that it is high time this little contri- 

 bution to the "Annual" should be got in readiness for publi- 

 cation. The task is the more agreeable in that the collector's 

 harvest has been an unusually bountiful one. 



It w^ill, perhaps, be best to begin with the weather ; and it 

 may be worth while, in connection with this interesting topic 

 to mention that, owing to the mild autumn of 1870, imagos 

 of Smerinthus jyopidi and larvae of Pieris hrassicce might 

 be had pretty well up to Christmas. Then, taking things in 

 a general way, the season was forward in some places and 

 backward in others, as it generally is; the spring and hyber- 

 nated Noctuce put in a very decent appearance, and as for 

 spring caterpillars, they abounded in certain districts in the 

 shape of P. chrysorrhoea and JS. neustria. The spring 

 months were less productive in the north ; though Scotland 

 in the season produced its share. 



