LEPIDOPTERA AND THEIR CAPTORS. 15 



hut it includes likewise some localities which have been, and are likely to 

 remain, amongst the best hunting grounds in England. Cannock Chase, 

 the gi'and habitat of G. iUcifuUa, is rapidly disappearing from the list of 

 these localities ; but Sher^'ood, Needwood, and Cham wood Forests still 

 remain to delight the heart and furnish the cabinet of the ardent 

 collector ; and the Peak of DerVjyshire, with its extensive moors, deep 

 dales, and purling streams, has as yet been verj^ little explored by 

 entomologists. It is quite wathin the range of possibility that many new 

 habitats, as well as species new to the district, may be discovered by 

 midland collectors, if only they will travel a little out of the beaten 

 tracks, and hunt for themselves, instead of following altogether in the 

 steps of others. There is no assignable reason why the gi'and "catch" 

 named above — G. ilicifolia — should not be found on the moors of North 

 Derbyshire, or why C. hiciisjjis should be regarded as almost confined to 

 the neighbourhood of Biirton-on-Trent. The 'v^'riter of the present 

 aj-ticle, duz-ing a sojourn of about ten days in the Peak in June, 1877, 

 took forty-five different species of Macro-Lepidoptera, some, of comrse, 

 common enough, but others quite sufficiently good to be worth having in 

 any collection ; and this, too, within a very limited extent of country. 

 Nor should it be forgotten that considerably more than haK the larv£e of 

 A. m/h(, recorded in the "Entomologist" as having been taken during the 

 autumn of last year, were secured by midland entomologists, the Rev. 

 T. W. Daltry, of Madeley, having taken no less than seven, the Rev. 

 H. A. Stoweli, of Breadsall, thi-ee, and six or seven others (including 

 the present vsrriter) one each. What is principally needed, in order to 

 secure an efficient and systematic working of the district, is something 

 like union and inter-communication among workers in the same field, 

 which should convert them from a body of irregular skirmishers into an 

 organized army. There are plenty of individual collectors, first-rate 

 localities, and ample materials to work upon. Ahnost every siib-division 

 of the midland district possesses a Natural History Society, numbering 

 its" members froin tens up to hundreds. Hut out of these many — to 

 speak mildly — take but little interest in any branch of natural history, 

 while far more devote their attention to other portions of the study, and the 

 students of Lepidoptera are (generally speaking) few and far between. 

 Even such a society as the North Staffordshire, vrith its 300 members, 

 reports that in the matter of entomology its [entire work for a year has 

 been done by a single individual. 



It is hoped, then, that the establishment of the Midland Naturalists' 

 Union, with its annual gatherings, its combined excursions, and — 

 last but not least — its monthly organ in the press, may contribute 

 powerfully towards the existence of a more satisfactory state of things 

 in this, as in all other branches of Natural History. Observers will 

 become cognizant of each other's existence and particular line of study ; 

 they will have the opportunity of meeting from time to time on the 

 field or in the annual gathering, and exchanging — as naturalists love 

 to do — experiences of the past, and hints for the future ; and 

 many observations, which otherwise might have never seen the light, 

 upon the habits and characteristics of different species, wiU be per- 

 manently recorded for the benefit of collectors and students in general. 

 "When we consider how many discoveries have been made, with relation 

 to the habits of our moths and butterflies, during the last few years, and 

 when, too, we find (as we may easily do by the perusal of any standard 

 work upon the subject) how much yet remains to be discovered, it 

 becomes pretty clear that there lies before the entomologists of the 

 midland district an extensive field, upon which they have only to enter 

 to reap a rich harvest of lam-els for them.selves, and — what is of far more 

 importance — of useful information for all lovers of animated nature. 



