170 Report on 



gardeners, " vermin " in general. This, however, is not so, 

 for as we all know, winter is the time when most insects are 

 in the pupal state, and therefore either beneath the ground, or 

 in some equally secure position, which position is rendered 

 doubly safe by the hardening of the surface or exterior by 

 frost. It may not be generally known that a damp warm 

 atmosphere is far more destructive to insect life generally 

 than a dry and frosty one. Again, in a soft winter birds are 

 far better able to obtain insects for food than they are in a 

 hard one. 



A severe winter, however, that is followed by a ver}' rapid 

 break up of the frost, accompanied by damp warm winds, is 

 very fatal to insects, as many are brought out by the sudden 

 change only to fall an easy prey to half starved birds. Last 

 year (1882) was an exceedingly poor one for the entomologist, 

 and there is every reason to believe that this one (1883) will 

 be worse. 



It has been noticed of late how much less common the 

 large garden white butterfly, P. hrassicce, has become. This is 

 certainly not due to any scarcity of the food-plant, but very 

 probably to the series of wet seasons that we have of late 

 years experienced. 



Our Aleteorological Sub-Committee would find it a subject 

 of great interest to compare their observations upon the 

 weather with the appearance or non-appearance of various 

 insects. 



With regard to what are called " noxious insects," our club 

 can, we think, render valuable assistance in giving information 

 as to the causes and remedies of many of the ills that farms 

 and gardens are heir to. Leaving out of the question the 

 aphides, various coleoptera, &c., which cause such havoc 

 amongst our crops, there are many larger enemies amongst 

 the lepidoptera. The larva of Z. cesculi, the wood leopard ; 

 of C. ligniperda, the goat-moth, and some others feed upon 

 the solid wood of some of our trees ; and the death of the 

 tree is generally attributed to some other cause, because the 

 real foe is hidden from view. How often we see orchards of 

 fruit destroyed by what is known as a grub : currant and 

 gooseberry bushes bare of leaves to their ultimate death ; the 

 former caused by carpocapsa, nepticida, poinoiiana, and 

 pomella, and the latter by a saw fly larva, and the currant 

 moth Abraxas grossulariata. Lime and birch trees served in 

 the same way by the larvae of Pygara bncephala, to say 

 nothing of the ravages committed by the night-feeding larvae 

 of Mamestra brassicce upon cabbage plants, and Agrotis segetiun 

 upon turnips. 



