202 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



in the shape of long grass, brambles, or undergrowth. The limes, 

 which might do something for them, seldom flower, and all trees 

 within a month after coming into leaf become coated with a 

 mixture of dust and soot, that appears to form a most effectual 

 barrier against everything but a very rapacious appetite. The 

 complete absence of any " London form of melanism " (such as 

 has been attributed to the manufacturing districts, where the 

 black Amphidasys hetularia has been taken) has always seemed 

 to me the most effectual evidence that there can be here no 

 influence brought to bear by food or surroundings. Except 

 for the interest attaching to the acquisition of exact details 

 concerning the species that still remain near us, I found that 

 collecting in London was waste of time ; yet on the capture of 

 such things as Vanessa polycldoros, Snierinthus populi, Phoro- 

 desma pustidata, and Hemerophlla ahruptaria, one is naturally led 

 to speculate what rarities might have been taken on the same 

 ground before that relentless octopus called civilisation spread 

 its arms of bricks and mortar, over the forests and fields of 

 Middlesex. 



16, Little Grosvenor Street, W., May 20, 1887. 



COLLECTING AUTUMNAL LEPIDOPTERA. 



By John T. Carrington, F.L.S. 



Among the autumnal Lepidoptera counted rare is Clrrhoedia 

 xerampelina ; an easy species to take when we know how. How 

 many gas-lamps have I clambered under the impression that 

 every yellowish moth was the prize, of those days, to find only 

 some other less valuable capture. Even when found at light 

 they are usually singed, and seldom in good condition. How 

 different was the appearance of these handsome moths when I 

 found out how to get them — larger and finer than bred. Walking 

 one afternoon, about the second or last week in August, by the 

 side of Knavesmire, near York, I noticed a spot of yellow on one 

 of a row of ash trees. That spot of colour was the first of a long 

 series of G. xerampelina. If I remember rightly, I took that 

 afternoon between seventy and eighty specimens, just as they 

 emerged from pupae. The way to get them is to search the 



