NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 209 



Great scarcity of Lepidui'TERA. — I Ciin bear testimonj' 

 with others as to the scarcity of Lepidoptera this year. I have 

 hunted regularly and carefully, with but indifferent success ; 

 species which used to abound here I cannot meet with. 

 For example, Anarta myrtilli is common in two parts of the 

 Quantoch Hills, but this year I have not taken a single specimen. 

 In this connection let me mention a curious fact, which I should 

 be glad to have explained. For three weeks previous to the 

 setting-in of the wet weather in June I "sugared" regularly in 

 my garden, three or four nights a week. Nocture were plentiful, 

 several times there was a " very crowd." Among others I took 

 Thyatira hatis, one specimen of Cymaiopliora ocularis in excellent 

 condition, C. riclens, and Diantluecia carpophaga. From this I 

 anticipated a good season ; but a week after the wet weather set 

 in every Noctua disappeared ; and to this day, though I have 

 " sugared " most perseveringly, I have seen but one single moth 

 at sugar, and that a Trijyhcsna pronuha. The total disappearance 

 was as sudden as unaccountable, at least to me. — [Rev.] J. 

 Seymour St. John ; Crowcombe Rectory, Taunton, August 15. 



Scarcity of Insects.— Probably the oldest collectors will 

 agi'ee with me that this season so far has been the very worst, as 

 far as Lepidoptera are concerned, within the whole range of their 

 experience. Such unquestionably. has been .the case in the south. 

 Perhaps some one will favour your readers with the state of 

 matters in the North of England or Scotland. Has the mild 

 winter allowed the enemies of our lepidopterous insects to in- 

 crease to such an extent as to threaten their extermination ? ' How 

 does it hai:>pen that one of the severest winters on record, viz., 

 1879-80, was followed by an exceptionally good season for insects, 

 and one of the mildest winters by one of the very worst seasons 

 within our recollection ? — W. McRae ; Bournemouth. 



Melit.ea Artemis in North Devon.— In Mr. South's notice 

 of captures in North Devon I see he does not mention Mel'itcea 

 Artemis. My brother found two of the larvse near here on the 

 18th April; they became pupae on the 27th, and produced fine 

 females on the 23rd and 24th May. On the 29th May, Miss 

 Hinchlitf and I took our nets to the marshy field where the larvae 

 had been found, and, oh that and the following day, caught over 

 seventy fine specimens. We could have taken many more. — 

 [Mrs.] F. S. Mathew; Instow, North Devon, July, 1882. 



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