NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 207 



alchemillata, fresh as just out of pupa. This species I took worn 

 early in Ma}- this year. Soon after I took Bucculatrix aurimacn- 

 lella, another early species. Among the Rosa spinosissima, Pen- 

 thina incarnatana was not rare. Among the Helianthemum, 

 Laverna miscella, Butalis fuscocBiieella and Gelecliia sequacella 

 were in plenty. Towards 7 in the evening another tribe began to 

 appear, viz., Elachista hiatomella, E. eleochariella, E. hedellella, 

 and E. adscitella. A little higher up Erebia Blandina was in 

 swarms; so were Larentia ol'wata ; but being able only to go 

 at snail's pace, I had to be content with odd ones that came near 

 me. Among the Hypericum, Gelechia atrella turned up ; and 

 among dead sticks (Ecophora I'uscescentella appeared, worn as 

 usual. I sent my son to Windermere for E. conspicualis, 

 but he did not see a specimen ; and only one worn Emmelesia 

 tcsniata : the heavy rains and cold weather made a moth of any 

 sort a treat to see. He only got about six moths, and some of 

 those were "pea-green's" {Tortrix viridana) washed white. I 

 succeeded in breeding Emmelesia taniata from the egg. Its life- 

 histor}' I will send you some day. — J. B. Hodgkinson ; 15, Spring 

 Bank, Preston, August 13, 1882. 



Remarks on the Season. — The present scarcity of Lepi- 

 doptera has led several of your correspondents to comment upon 

 the subject. I should also like to add a few remarks, so far as 

 my personal experience will permit. In New Maiden neither 

 June nor the early part of July have yielded me half a dozen 

 specimens worth recording, although I have worked diligently 

 with the net at twilight, sugared favourite trees, and later on 

 searched the gas-lanlps. Whilst speaking of the last mode of 

 collecting, perhaps one capture is worthy of notice: — On July 

 14th I took Orthosia suspecta, a species I have never known to 

 occur in this village before. The season, as a whole, in this part 

 of Surrey, I believe, is one of the worst known for many years. 

 Now, bearing this fact in mind, it does seem strange that the 

 horticulturist should be justly entitled to complain of his insect 

 enemies. Nevertheless it is so ; for Aphides have occurred in 

 enormous numbers, attacking vegetation in many of its varied 

 forms. To give an idea of their abundance, — just imagine the 

 trunks of oak trees altered in colour, and the ground for some 

 few inches around the base of each raised two inches above its 

 normal level by a moving mass of animated nature ; then will one 



