NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA IN 1897. 257 



Bullman, if his rooms are vacant, as he thoroughly understands 

 collectors' ways, and makes one exceedingly comfortable in every 

 respect. 



3, Mount View Road, Crouch End, N. 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTEEA IN 1897. 

 By Claude A. Pyett. 



The influence of weather upon collecting has been remark- 

 ably evidenced during the year, but on the whole it has been 

 fairly productive of insects. There was no winter to speak of, 

 if by winter is understood a continuance of frost and snow ; but 

 the weather during the opening months of the year was very 

 unsettled and changeable, and but for an occasional specimen of 

 the Hybernidse collecting was out of the question. May, which 

 ought to be the month for the lepidopterist, was showery and 

 cool right up to the third week, and insects were consequently 

 very late in emerging, whilst vegetation was likewise very much 

 retarded. The woods, which with the advent of June are gener- 

 ally with verdure clad, presented a wintry appearance, and the 

 oaks and poplars were only just showing for leaf ; whilst May 

 was well on the wane before the hawthorn blossomed. In fact, 

 everything, both in the insect world and plant-life, was a month 

 late. Commencing from July, the summer on the whole has 

 been fine and dry, insects on the wing have been fairly plenti- 

 ful, and the wet spring is being counterbalanced by a brilliant 

 autumn. 



My collecting has been principally confined to the Micros, 

 and the first to come under notice are Roslerstammia erxlebella, 

 Gelechia cerealella, G. nanella, and Lithocolletis tristrigella, the 

 captures of which are interesting, as these species had not 

 previously been recorded for the county, and they are therefore 

 additions to the ' Suffolk List of Lepidoptera,' compiled by the 

 Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, who has kindly assisted me in identifying 

 specimens. All four species were obtained through a careful 

 inspection of walls and wall-ledges in Ipswich, and I rather 

 wonder this mode of collecting is not more often heard of, as my 

 experience has been that it pays even better than palings. An 

 old crumbly wall in an unexposed situation is a favourite haunt 

 of those two pretty species, Argyresthia brockella and A. goedar- 

 tella, of which I can always rely on getting a long series in 

 season. I have also found (Ecophora lunaris to be common and 

 widely distributed in the town, this year boxing some fifty speci- 

 mens in one afternoon. The list of wall captures also includes 

 Ephestia kiihnieila, Poedisca bilunana (two), Stigmonota regiana 

 (two), Batodes angustiorana (several), Semasia tvoeberana (two), 



