120 



A FEW NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA THAT HAVE 



BEEN EECORDED FOR THE CLEVELAND 



DISTRICT DURING PAST YEARS. 



By T. ASHTON LOFTHOUSE. 



In looking up old records in connection with a list of 

 Cleveland Lepidoptera which I am preparing, I have come 

 across several species for which no recent records exist, so far 

 as I am aware, and I thought it would lead to some work 

 being done by Lepidopterist members of our Club and others 

 if a list of these insects were published, with localities recorded, 

 and a few notes appended as to likely habitats, and plants that 

 each species is likely to affect, and by this means gain the 

 assistance of our members to work up these particular species 

 and see if they still exist in Cleveland. 



It is probable that a good many, if not all, of them, may still 

 be found by diligent working (excepting, of course, such speaiea 

 as Antiopa, Quadra, etc., which are distinctly migratory species 

 as far as this locality is concerned), but in the very short time 

 in the summer months at our disposal, and with the limited 

 number of members who work at this branch, it is necessarily 

 slow work hunting up these recorded species. But the work 

 that has been done by cur Lepidojiterist members during the 

 past season or two has resulted in several species being added 

 to our Cleveland list ; and I have great hope that by their 

 assistance most, if not all, the species enumerated may be found. 



In writing a few years since to a gentleman at Great Ayton 

 for a list of Insects likely to be taken there (in connection with 

 a Yorkshire Naturalists' L^nion proposed excursion to the 

 district), he, after naming a few species that he had taken in 

 the district, said that " several of the kinds have become scarce 

 of late years, I think on account of the many artificial manures 

 now used. It is only my idea, but I may be right." How far 

 this is true I am not prepared to say, but I have no doubt that 

 the great alteration made in agricultural methods in recent years 

 has had a good deal to do with the disappearance of some 

 species. One example is the way hedges are being perpetually 

 cut down, often right to the roots ; and this of itself must 

 account for a very large destruction of insects in the ova and 

 larvae stages. 



