164 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, CAPTURES, &c. 



Influence of Mild Winter on Lepidoptera. — The un- 

 wonted mildness of the winter and spring of 1884 has brought 

 Lepidoptera out very early : — Gonepteryx rhamni was flying 

 about before January was very far advanced ; I saw Vanessa io 

 the third week in February ; and Vanessa urticce and Pieris rapes 

 in the first and fourth weeks of March respectively ; whilst 

 Taniocampa instabilis was out in the second week in February. 

 Larva? of Chelonia caja left their hiding-places in February ; and 

 I found the caterpillars of Liparis auriflua in the latter half of 

 March. Mines of Nepticula aurella with living larva? in were 

 plentiful on bramble leaves throughout the winter. I found them 

 especially abundant at Kirtling, near Newmarket, in the second 

 week in January. I have also obtained several other species of 

 Micro-lepidoptera, of which I will send you notes later on. The 

 larva? of Grammesia trilinea, Cerigo cytherea, Leueania lithargyria, 

 L. puclorina, and the spring-feeding larva? of the Noctuida? 

 generally, are more abundant than has been usual of late years ; 

 and this, I think, promises well for the coming season. I have 

 found the above-mentioned larva? and several others by searching 

 among grass and low plants early in the morning. Hybernia 

 rupieapria, H. leucophearia, and H. progemmaria have, as far as I 

 have noticed, been in less abundance this winter and spring than 

 they usually are ; while, on the other hand, the early flying and 

 hybernated Tineina have been very numerous. — A. H. Waters ; 

 Willoughby House, Mill Eoad, Cambridge, April 8, 1884. 



Postponed Emergence of Lepidoptera. — Somewhere in our 

 early periodical literature I remember to have read the statement 

 that one of the Chelsea " aurelians," in rearing a batch of the 

 larva? of Eriogaster lanestris, was astonished to find that a third 

 emerged the next February, another third the second February, 

 and the remainder the February after that ; and Rennie declares 

 that this species has been known to remain in pupa? five years, 

 which would exceed by a year the time noticed by Mr. Tutt. 

 Apropos of another instance, given by the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, I 

 have observed such a delay to occur in the appearance of CuculUa 

 verbasci ; possibly it is not infrequent throughout that very 

 natural genus. I think it would be interesting to many entomo- 



