REMARKS UPON CAUSES OF SCARCITY OF LEPIDOPTERA. 53 
South Devon, and the South and West of Ireland, with an 
abundant entomological fauna, where the winter climate is 
normally such as that in question. This cause could, therefore, 
in any case only account for the comparative dearth of some 
species, while the Hepialide, and such species as Chareas 
graminis, which have subterraneous larve and pup, would be as - 
numerous as usual (as was my own experience, and that of others ; 
see Mr. Corbett, in Entom. xv. 236); yet many species which 
have subterraneous or well-protected pups, such as Dicranura 
vinula, &c., were also abnormally scarce. We must, therefore, 
look for a further cause. 
Cause 2. There was one characteristic of the summer of 
1881, as well as the succeeding autumn and spring, which I 
think goes a long way toward explaining the dearth of (1st) such 
forest insects -as have arborivorous larve (for it is, I think, in 
this section the scarcity seems to have been most marked), and 
(2ndly) of some coast insects in certain exposed localities: I 
refer to the succession of high winds and storms. For such 
larvee as feed exclusively on tree foliage, when shaken down, 
perished (with the exception of Tortricide, whose rolled-up 
shelters would protect them,—7’. viridana, for instance, is 
reported to have been very abundant), whether in summer, 
autumn, or after hybernation in the spring; while such as live 
on bushes or low-growing plants, or on such trees as the willow, 
sallow, alder, or birch, which are frequently found on bushes or 
in hedgerows, were; on suitable nights, not only plentiful, but 
unusually so. Bryophila perla (Mr. Salwey, Entom. xv. 198) and 
many of the lichen-feeders were reported as abundant; Tineina 
pretty plentiful, teste Mr. South (Entom. xv., pp. 154, 155), 
Mr. Corbett (p. 236), Mr. Tugwell (p. 205, Lithosia pygmeola), 
Mr. Bird (p. 235), Mr. Atmore (xvi., p. 12), and others. Marsh 
insects and internal feeders I also noticed were in normal 
abundance on fine nights. Mr. South also indicates another 
result of the stormy season (p. 154), which destroyed not only 
the tree foliage in an exposed locality, but also the surrounding 
herbage. Mr. Tugwell illustrates the same in his complaint that 
he could find but few flowers and seed-pods of Lychnis or Silene 
at Dover. I observed the same at Howth and the Isle of Man, 
where the Silene maritima had likewise suffered by the wind. 
This accounts for the rarity of Dianthecia cesia and D. capso- 
