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ON THE EECENT ABUNDANCE OP PYRAMEIS 

 CARDUI, PLUSIA GAMMA, AND NOMOPHILA 

 NOCTUELLA. 



By Egbert Adkin, F.E.S. 



There can be no doubt as to the abundance of Pyrameis cardui 

 in England during the spring of this year, but when and where 

 the species was first seen, or indeed any details of the visitation, 

 appear to be wanting, and the phenomenon is thus shorn of 

 much of its interest. My own experience in the matter is but 

 slight, and at best imperfect, owing to force of circumstances. 

 I, however, give it for what it is worth ; but many observers who 

 live in country places, and are tlius able to be in constant touch 

 with what goes on around them, and habitually note the manners 

 and ways of even our common species, could doubtless throw a 

 good deal of light on the subject. Up to June 1st I had been 

 constantly in London, and had therefore little chance of seeing 

 whether cardui was with us or not ; but on the evening of that 

 day I arrived in Eastbourne. It was a very wet evening, and 

 the following morning was cloudy and dull ; the afternoon, how- 

 ever, came out bright, and while walking home along the parade 

 I saw an evident Vanessid, which I took to be cardui, fly wildly 

 up the bank which separates the parade from the roadway and 

 disappear over the top. 



The 3rd was a brilliant day, and leaving home directly after 

 breakfast for a morning on the downs, I had to pass the long 

 slopes that form the front of the cliffs towards the sea. In 

 places these were a blaze of yellow blossom, owing to the bird's- 

 foot trefoil {Lotus corniculatus), horseshoe vetch {Hippocrepis 

 comosa), and kidney vetch {Anthyllis vulnerai'ia) , which here 

 grow in huge masses, being at the height of their flowering. 

 Crowds of cardui were feeding on the latter, but the Lotus and 

 Hippocrepis appeared to offer no attraction to them. As the 

 butterflies sat feeding on the flowers with the full sunshine upon 

 their extended wings, the majority of them looked as though 

 they were in the most perfectly fresh condition ; but on capturing 

 and examining a number of them, this was found to be by no 

 means the case. Not only were the colours under closer in- 

 spection seen to be more or less faded, but the fringes showed 

 very decided signs of wear, suggesting that the insects had been 

 on the wing for a considerable time, yet very few of them showed 

 any signs of mutilation. 



In the adjacent " hollows " on the downs, Plusia gamma was 

 simply swarming among the grass which here grows to perhaps 

 a foot in height, and on the rougher ground Nomopliila noctuella 

 darted out of the tufts of scrubby grass in considerable numbers. 



