i68 Report on 



members of the sub-committee, of the insects found in our 

 district, a series of lists were drawn up of all the species 

 hitherto recorded as British. Sufficient space was left after 

 each species for the different members to record their 

 experiences and observations, and it is intended, from time to 

 time, to add such fresh observations as may be made. 



We are just entering upon another season, and already 

 many insects are out. In its present form our lists are very 

 incomplete, as regards our local lepidoptera, but we trust that 

 with the assistance of the members generally we shall be able 

 to make considerable progress this summer and autumn. 



There is also another matter that should be referred to. 

 The study of entomology, although widely taken up, is, com- 

 parativel)' speaking, confined to the lepidoptera; and the 

 collecting and study of lepidoptera again is pretty generally 

 confined to the larger forms, often leaving out, for various 

 reasons, the micro-Iepidoptera. 



Of late years the latter have come in for much more atten- 

 tion than formerly, but their study and manipulation is much 

 sterner work than that of the larger forms. 



Hence this report must be regarded as simply part of the 

 first of a series, the remaining portion of which will embrace 

 the micro-lepidoptera. The rest of the series should comprise 

 the Coleoptera, or beetles, the Hymenoptera, or bees, wasps, 

 &c., the Diptera, or two-winged flies, to say nothing of the 

 dragon flies, the plant lice, the aphides, the gall insects, and 

 others. The committee would be glad to know of any 

 members who may be working at any of the above sections, 

 or who would be willing to take one or the other up sys- 

 tematically, with a view to recording the species found in our 

 own district. 



Having thus defined the limits of this report, we have now 

 only to consider those species of the British lepidoptera, 

 included under the divisions Diurni, Nocturni, Geometrse, 

 Drepanulse, Pseudo-Bombyces, and Noctuae, which have been 

 recorded from this locality. 



The Croydon district is a very favoured one, and for many 

 years has been much frequented by collectors, who, it is to be 

 regretted, sometimes make enormous hauls of a good insect, 

 thereby greatly assisting in making it a rarity. The Arch- 

 bishop's fence, Croham Hurst, Shirley Hills, and the pine 

 wood, are household words to entomologists, and are perhaps 

 better known to north-country entomologists than even to 

 some of the inhabitants of Croydon itself, to whom a butterfly 

 is a butterfly, and nothing more. 



Situated as Croydon is on the edge of the London clay, its 



