39 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA. 



The season just ending haE, owing perhaps chiefly to the absence of sunshine, been rather a poor 

 one for butterflies, although a few good specimens have been met with. The species usually found in 

 the district, notwithstandiag the cold and wet weather experienced in May and June, appeared about 

 the normal time. Moths have been more plentiful, but nothing very rare has yet to my knowledge 

 been taken. The sallow bloom attracted a good many species in the Spring, and also flowers, especially 

 the Bladder Campion (Silene infiati) during the Summer, and sugar put on the trunks of trees, etc., 

 at night, has been more attractive than in some seasons, probably through the damp weather. Below 

 are a few of the species taken at the above natural and artificial baits, by myself and friends:— 



Pachnohia rubricosa, Tieniocampa gracilis, Thyatira derasa, Neuria reticulata. Noctua rhomhoidea, 

 Triphxna interjecta, Eremobia ochroleuca, Xanthia fiavago, Xanthia aurago, Aporophila lutulenta, 

 lylina seniihrunnem. 



Eremobia ochroleuca, which is a local species and generally found on the flowers of the knapweed, 

 has been more plentiful this season than ioT some years past. 



F. A. SMALL. 



A mild winter is usually the forerunner of a bad colleotinpr summer, but the immense number of 

 lepidopterous larva of grass-feeding insects to be mat with in the earlier spring months seemed to 

 point to a contradiction of the rule, a contradiction not, however, borne out by results, f.'r from all 

 sides we hear of the paucity of insect life in almost all its branches during the wet and sunless 

 summer just ended, whether of large or small dimensions the same is the case, and only the young 

 and ardent collectors have met with any success. The great feature in East Kent for the year 1901 

 was the immense multitudes of V. urtica:, which as larva ravaged every bed of nettles throughout 

 the district, both during the early and autumn broods. The imagines were literally in thousands 

 previous to hibernation, and of course this spring showed them ^uite in numbers; it was then that 

 •with much surprise we noticed the nettles this summer growing luxuriantly and almost free from 

 larva, indeed several excursions in different directions, with the especial object of noting their pre- 

 sence, met with no result whatever. 



But if V. urticse in its larval condition was conspicuous by its absence, the same cannot be said of 

 the quaint orange and black caterpillars of the cinnabar moth, Euchelia Jacobex, which literally 

 swarmed from one end of the Folkestone Warren to the other. During August hundreds might be 

 gathered in a morning from the two species of ragwort growing there, and at the end of September 

 the bare and leafless stems which everywhere met the eye, attracted the attention of even casual 

 passers-by. No examples of great rarity have been met with. 



Dover. S. W. WEBB. 



NOTE ON HYMENOPTERA. 



To the collectors of Hymenoptera generally, and of Phytophagous Hymenoptera in particular, the 

 present year has not proved a very profitable time. Probably owing to the very severe and unseason- 

 able weather experienced in the first halt of the year, the number of Hymenoptera was greatly 

 restricted. The only genera which seemed abundant were some of the commoner Bombi, such as 

 terrestris and lapidarius. Dasypoda hirtipes was met with in some numbers on some of the higher 

 spots round Canterbury. Last year Psithyri were abundant in the locality, but this year hardly one 

 was to be seen. Megachile, in various species, were fairly plentiful, but by no means so much so as 

 last year. Among the Diptera, however, there seemed no such lack. Belophilus, in various species, 

 was plentiful, as were also other Syrphidie, notably Eristalis tenax and Syrphu^ balteatus. I also 

 captured one or twO' specimens of Chrysoto3;um, It is to be hoped that we shall have a better season 

 in 1903. 



W. M. KODWELL. 



BOTANICAL NOTES RELATING TO THE SUMMER OF 1902. 



Owing to the frequent showers during most of the spring and summer, nearly all wild plants 

 grew much more vigorously than they have done for several of the past years, which have been ex- 

 ceedingly dry. But the same cause which made the plants grow, unfortunately in a number of cases 

 prevented botanical excursions which had been planned from being carried out. 



The orchids seemed to delight in this abundance of moisture, and some of the finest spikes ever 

 seen were easily found. Yet the rarer ones are, it is much to be regretted, becoming scarcer and 

 scarcer every year in those haunts which are well known to the public, notably in the Wye district, 

 owing to their being unceasingly dug up and carried away, in nine cases out of ten to perish. 

 Spiranthes avtumnalis was, however, very plentiful in East Kent, especially so at Dover, also close to 

 Canterbury and at Crundale and at Petham. 



