88 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



EPPING FOREST DURING 1884. 

 By W. H. Wright. 



The long- wished -for sunny summer has passed, and it 

 remains to be proved whether the prognostications of those seers 

 who prophesied that with the return of warm summers a corre- 

 sponding influence will be exerted upon Lepidoptera, and put an 

 end for a time to the scarcity of insects of that order, which has 

 generally prevailed in these islands during the last three wet 

 years. There is but little doubt that abundant sunshine is 

 necessary to the well-being of most forms of life, and especially 

 to vegetable growths, and, as a natural consequence, to such forms 

 of life as owe their existence to the vegetable world. It would 

 therefore seem to follow that weather which is favourable to the 

 growth of vegetation should likewise be favourable to the insects 

 feeding upon it. And yet there is some room for doubt, for 

 during 1883 and 1884 the trees were more fully foliated than in 

 1882, especially such as the oak and beech, but without that cor- 

 responding increase in the numbers of arboriferous -feeding larvae 

 which one might expect. Possibly the mild winters of 1882-3, 

 1883-4, while favouring the growth of trees, may yet have been 

 unfavourable for the hybernating larvse and ova of Lepidoptera, 

 so that if that is the case we may infer that cold and frost are 

 necessary to the well-being of Lepidoptera in their various stages 

 during the winter months. Of course the character of the 

 spring months must be taken into serious consideration, as we 

 have abundance of proof that a fitful spring, with alternations of 

 frost and mild weather, is fatal to young larvae. 



We are then led to the conclusion that a regular spring, even 

 with low temperature, is more conducive to the well-being of the 

 young larvae than a fitful one, and a spring of cold sunshiny 

 weather, such as that of the past year, must be the precursor of 

 returning plenty for insect collectors. Such was my anticipation 

 in the early part of 1884, and such was fairly realized, for larvae 

 were decidedly more plentiful than I have observed them during 

 the three previous years. Li some instances I found, however, to 

 my disappointment, that several species had entirely disappeared 

 from their old habitats, among which were Thecla quercus and 



