NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 133 



I remember, about seven or eight years ago, assisting a well- 

 known farmer in Dorset to carry his hay. I was appointed to 

 work upon the rick, and, whilst so doing, 'l found a great number 

 of Epinephcle ianira pupae, but they nearly all died, and the few 

 which emerged did not exhibit any aberration ; pressure in this 

 case undoubtedly caused such a mortality ; the grass upon being 

 cut must have overlaid most of them. I also took pupa of other 

 species, but forget whether I bred any imagines from them. 



Ringwood, January, 1894. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Migration of Lepidoptera. — Notwithstanding the tropical heat of 

 Brazil there is a large rainfall, and what is an important factor in the 

 case, the rain falls at frequent intervals during the summer, thus in- 

 ducmg a rapid and luxuriant vegetable growth, resulting in immense 

 forests and thickly wooded hills, with creepers and twiners matting the 

 forest trees together. The rocks disintegrate rapidly in Brazil, form- 

 ing a rich soil, so that even the tops of the mountains are covered 

 with a luxuriant growth of trees and underwood. No wonder there- 

 fore that there is so great a profusion of insect life where the con- 

 ditions for their nutrition are so very favourable, While staying at 

 Santos, the local newspapers reported that an immense swarm of 

 "borboletas " (butterflies or moths) had invaded S. Vicente, a seaside 

 village near Santos. The insects had arrived in such immense 

 numbers that they formed a cloud which, they reported, even obscured 

 the sun ! They invaded the village, swarming into the houses and 

 flying against everything. The greater portion of the swarm was said 

 to have passed over the village with a strong wind which was blowino' 

 at the time off the land and in the direction of the sea. Large numbers 

 were reported to have fallen into the sea, and to have been subsequently 

 cast up on shore in such large quantities that the shore was said to be 

 strewed for some distance with the bodies. Wishing to see what I 

 could of so extraordinary an occurrence, I took the steam-tram down 

 to S. Vicente about three days afterwards. No traces of the passage 

 were to be seen in the village : so my friend and I went to the sea- 

 shore, and there at high-water mark we found abundant proofs as to 

 what the swarms consisted of. We found large numbers of the bodies 

 of a moth about an inch and a-half long, and, so far as we could judge, 

 of a creamy grey colour, resembling that of the English puss-moth 

 {Dicranura vinula). The bodies had, however, been so much knocked 

 about on the sand that they were very imperfect, and not in a state for 

 classification. For some considerable time previous to the appear- 

 ance of the swarm the weather had been very rainy, and, so far as I 

 could learn, unusually so for the time of the year. The temperature 

 had therefore been rather lower than usual. When, however, the 

 weather cleared up, there was a considerable and sudden rise of tem- 

 perature for several days, and to this I think must be attributed the 

 sudden appearance of an immense number of these moths simul- 



