36 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



plants and killed them, and the larvae were starved to death. 

 For some years the halsam and the larvee had become less and 

 less, and in 1913, to add to their discomfort, hens were kept in 

 the locality which scraped the balsam up by the roots, and ate 

 all the larvae that came in their way, so that in 1914 I only 

 obtained three larvae, and since then they have ceased to exist. 



Such is the story of the difiticulties and disappointments of a 

 collector when finding a rare moth in good numbers. 



Let me add a few facts in connection with the moths and the 

 larvae. 



The moths could be caught at rest on tree trunks, or beaten 

 out of large, leaved bushes during the day in the immediate 

 vicinity of the food-plant ; they deposit their ova, singly, on the 

 under side of the balsam leaves, and when the ova hatch the 

 young larvae eat round holes in the leaves ; before they are half 

 grown they may be found eating the yellow flowers, and when 

 more than half grown they eat round holes in the green seed- 

 pods, which resemble the larvae in colour and in shape ; before 

 the larvae are half grown they rest by day on the under side of 

 the leaves in a straight position, imitating the young seed-pods, 

 and when they are nearly fall-fed they rest on the topmost spray 

 of the plant, resting in a straight position from the stem of the 

 leaf to the mam stem of the plant, which makes them easy to 

 find. 



The most astonishing thing in all the past ten years of its 

 history is, that the locality which must have been passed within 

 a few yards by numerous entomologists, hundreds of botanists, 

 and thousands of tourists, has not become known. 



THE ABUNDANCE OF WHITE BUTTEEFLIES IN 1917. 

 By PiOBERT Adkin, F.E.S. 



Just thirty years ago — in the summer of 1887 — " white 

 butterflies " were so much more common than usual as to cause 

 general comment. Both Pieris brassicce and P. rapa appear to 

 have been affected, and the abundance was said to have extended 

 over the greater part of England and Scotland ; unfortunately 

 records for Wales and Ireland are, so far as I am aware, wanting. 

 It was then stated that the preceding cold and comparatively 

 dry winter and hot summer had no doubt had some influence, 

 but extensive and continued immigration was also suggested as 

 a contributory cause, the heat and absence of high winds being 

 considered favourable, and this suggestion is supported by a note 

 by C. G. Barrett recording what ap])eared to be the arrival of an 

 immigrating swarm at Hunstanton (see ' Entom.,' 1887, pp. 227, 

 264, 265; 'E. M. M.,' 1887, pp. 84-5, 112, 130, 158). 



