XII. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL REPORTS. 



By George W. Ord. 



1895-6. 



(Read 4th March, i8g6). 



Entomologists, like farmers, are considered chronic grumblers. 

 With them the season is always either too dry or too cold, too 

 windy or too wet. For once Glasgow entomologists at any rate 

 have good subject-matter for grumbling, in the gradual destruction 

 of Cadder Wilderness, the haunt of every man of them from the 

 first time he sallied forth net in hand. Coal-pits, and railways in 

 connection therewith, are rapidly taking the place of one of the 

 finest stretches of wooded land in the West of Scotland. 



During the Session 1895 five Excursions were arranged by the 

 Entomological Section, all of which were fairly successful, although 

 the attendance left much to be desired. The great feature of the 

 season was the early appearance of some insects and the extra- 

 ordinary abundance of others. As early as the 1st of June, 

 Lare?itia didymata and Plusia gamma were abroad. The first 

 of these does not usually make its appearance in the West of 

 Scotland till the middle of July, while the Silver Gamma is 

 ordinarily most abundant in September. Down in the south of 

 Ayrshire, however, it is a July insect, and the difference in its 

 time of appearance in the two localities is one of those puzzles 

 which the entomologist is perpetually trying to solve. It is just 

 possible that it is double-brooded, and certainly its early appearance 

 last year would seem to point in that direction. Larentia didymata 

 is one of our commonest and most wide-spread insects, but last 

 year it not only justified this title, but extended its time-limit also, 

 by appearing six weeks earlier than usual ; nor did it make up for 



