A LEPIDOPTERIST’S NOTES. 65 
A LEPIDOPTERIST’'S NOTES ON THE SEASON 
. OF 1878. 
BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, JUN. 
That the season of 1878 was but an indifferent one for the 
Lepidopterist seems to have been the general report ; nevertheless, as is 
always the case even in the worst of years, some good species turned up in 
greater or less abundance. In the first place, the most striking circum- 
stance was the almost total disappearance of Colias Hdusa, whilst in 1877 
it literally swarmed, appearing too in places where it had never before 
been observed. In one field, near Chichester, I could have taken double» 
nay, treble the number of clouded yellows than of the common whites— 
Brassice, Rapx, or Napi; and, what is more, my brother andJI, in this 
same field, captured the surprising number of forty of the beautiful 
variety to which Haworth gave the name of Helice. The specimens 
exhibit a great variety of tint, some being greenish white, others by 
daylight a rich primrose yellow; in the size of the marginal spots also 
there is much diversity, in some they are reduced to the merest specks. 
The central spot in the hind wings varies from bright orange to cream 
colour, in nearly every case the whitest insects possessing the most deeply 
coloured spots. I saw but one Hdusa throughout last year, and that was 
on the 25th October. Truly, the species of Colias are most erratic in their 
movements. This strange appearing and disappearing, however, is not 
confined to Colias; we may find the same taking place with many 
species—such as Cardui, Stellatarum, Convolvuli, &c. What is the 
reason? Possibly the same that causes the seeds of divers plants to 
remain for years dormant in the soil, and then suddenly to spring forth 
into rank luxuriance—the fortuitous combination, namely, of certain 
external circumstances—as moisture and heat. 
The past year will certainly be noted for some very successful 
working in the fen districts of Cambridgeshire, such rarities as Meliana 
flammea, Nonagria Obrevilinea, and Hydrilla palustris, having been 
obtained in some numbers. Several specimens of the beautiful 
Dianthecia albimacula were captured at Folkestone, and Pachnobia hyper- 
borea (carnica, Heer, Newmaun,) in the locality where it occurs in Perth- 
shire. These are only a few instances of the ‘“‘ plums” which fell, not 
into the mouths, but into the nets of the more fortunate collectors. 
I cannot myself boast of such captures, my collecting having been con- 
fined to the immediate neighbourhood of this place—Chichester ; still, I 
am induced to think that a record of my own experience may not be 
without interest to others. 
I may mention then first a beautiful buff variety of the small copper 
butterfly, C. Phicas. The larvee of Vanessa Polychloros were excessively 
abundant on elms in our garden. On one little bough which I broke off 
I counted as many as fifty. Some of these produced imagos of a 
remarkably dark and handsome tint, with the first spot on the costa not 
suffused as is usually the case, but divided into two circular spots, the 
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