48 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Swansea ; Mr. Dillvvyn, however, says that he has no recol- 

 leclion ofit.— G. R. Crotch. 

 „ Plague of Moths. — In several parts of New South Wales 



y^ great annoyance has been caused this autumn by immense 

 quantities of moths. The Rev. W. B. Clarke, in a letter to 

 the 'Sydney Morning Herald,' gives an account of the 

 annoyance occasioned to the congregation at St. Thomas's 

 Church, North Shore, last year, and again this year: — "The 

 moths appeared in church this year on the 14th of Septem- 

 ber, and from that date to this have gone on increasing in 

 numbers, until several bushels have been destroyed, though 

 apparently without much diminishing the army. The state of 

 the church was such on Sunday, October 6th, from the accu- 

 mulated dust (moth- feathers), and the incessant swarms that 

 were continually flying through the building, that Divine 

 service could not he held therein. More than seven days' 

 hard labour in endeavouring to subdue them had been then 

 spent in vain, and since then applications of the strongest 

 ammonia, sulphur, smoke, and other contrivances, used for 

 hours, have failed to drive them away, for as fast as one 

 swarm is partly destroyed another succeeds. There are so 

 many openings in the building that cannot be closed, and so 

 many lodgments outside, that no smothering contrivance has 

 succeeded ; and as the trees and ground are full of them, the 

 moths, if driven away for a time, muster again and return. 

 This morning I made an attempt to reckon up the numbers 

 grouped together on the windows, and I counted more than 

 80,000. In the tower and below the floor, and hidden 

 behind the skirting, there are probably many millions. An 

 opinion has been published that these moths came in from 

 the sea. 1 am told that a vessel yesterday, twenty miles 

 from land, was covered with them. Their first appearance 

 this year was with a west wind. Previous visitations have 

 probably left eggs enough to account for the present multi- 

 tudes without going a great distance." 



[A long and interesting account of this phenomenon ap- 

 pears in this day's ' Zoologist,' forming part of Mr. Dun- 

 ning's report of a late Meeting of the Entomological Society; 

 and on several previous occasions 1 have published, iu that 

 Journal, records of phenomena of this kind, under the heading 

 " Bugoug Moths." — Edward Newman.^ 



