92 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the imagines in their natural haunts, as the males, being winged, are 

 more readily seen and captured, but in breeding them I have invariably 

 found such to be the case. Of the following species, all of which 

 (except the last) have apterous females, I have had considerable 

 numbers under my observation at various times over a number of 

 years, mostly from larvae collected during the previous summers, and 

 have invariably found female emergences preponderating : Hyhernia 

 TUjncapraria, H. lencophcearia, H. aurantiaria, H. viarginaria, H. 

 defoliaria, A. (zscularia and P. pedaria. Of A. hispidaria and 

 N. zonaria I have had no experience, and cannot therefore say if this 

 character is general with them or not. Strangely enough, in the case 

 of L. Jiirtaria, in which species Jihe female is winged, of two batches 

 reared by me the emergences were nearly equal. Last June, being 

 in the neighbourhood of West Runton, Norfolk, I found the trees in 

 many places entirely defoliated by countless hordes of caterpillars. 

 They hung from the trees in festoons, and covered them and the 

 hedges for several miles ; it would be no exaggeration to say there 

 were millions. The trees attacked were oak, birch, hazel, sycamore, 

 whitethorn, also bramble and honeysuckle, and in a lesser degree 

 ash and sweet chestnut. There were five species at work, and I 

 collected about twelve of each, defoliaria d^nd pedaria being apparently 

 the most numerous. From these larvae imagines emerged as follows : 

 H. leucop)}icEaria, 3 (j" , 7 ? ; H. viarginaria, 3 j^* , 5 $ ; H. defoliaria, 

 2 cJ, 8 $ ; /I. cBscularia, 2^,7 ? ; P.pedaria, 1 (^, 9 $ . The theory 

 of protection to the species by this arrangement of greater safety to 

 the female (through her apterous condition) during the stormy and 

 inclement weather general in the early months of the year is ingenious 

 and taking, but when it is remembered that there are other moths 

 abroad at this time of the year whose females are not apterous, and 

 that there are some females that are so among summer-emerging 

 species, the correctness of the reasoning may be questioned, and 

 room is given for further research and speculation as to whether this 

 is or is not the true answer to the riddle. — J. E. Campbell-Taylor ; 

 March 6th, 1920. 



The "Winter" Moths. — In reply to Mr. H. D. Ford ('Entom., 

 March, 1920, p. 67), in my experience the females of the "winter 

 moths " and of PJiigalia pedaria are always quite as plentiful, 

 and very often much more numerous, than the males. One evening 

 in the second week of last June I beat out in Lepton Wood, near 

 here, a quantity of full-fed larva) of Hybernids and Phigalia pedaria, 

 and this winter have bred fifty-eight P. pedaria — twenty-eight males 

 and thirty-five females. I did not keep count of the other species, 

 but in the considerable number of Hyhernia aurantiaria which 

 emerged a considerable majority were females. Of H. defoliaria I 

 only bred six or eight specimens, about lialf being of each sex. Thus 

 far the males of II. marginaria largely predominate, but as they are 

 still emerging it is possible the females may appear later. But my 

 more immediate object in writing this note is to ask if it has been 

 observed in other parts of the country that the specimens of these 

 moths are this winter much below the average in size ? None of the 

 males of the P. pedaria, H. aurantiaria or H. marginaria are of 



