270 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



This visitation was by far the worst of its kind that I have ever 

 known, and the only satisfactory way of dealing with it seems to 

 be to have the larvae collected by hand (E. R. B.). 



SCARCITY OF LEPIDOPTERA. The beautiful summer of 1904 

 proved sadly disappointing to the Lepidopterist, for, although 

 the weather was, on the whole, quite ideal for collecting 

 purposes, both Macro and Micro-lepidoptera were in general 

 lamentably scarce, numbers of the better class species being 

 either not met with at all or only very sparingly. This was by 

 no means surprising, seeing that the previous year was one of the 

 very worst ever known and that a few seasons must necessarily 

 elapse before insects, reduced almost to the vanishing point, can 

 recover their average numbers. Exceptions were, of course, to 

 be noticed, as is always the case even in the most unproductive 

 years, and some few moths, in addition to a good many butter- 

 flies, were decidedly more plentiful than usual. The most 

 notable feature was, perhaps, the sudden appearance in East 

 Dorset, towards the end of May, of some numbers of the usually 

 very rare Silver-striped Hawk-moth (Phryxus livornica, Esp.), of 

 which a large flight obviously reached England from the 

 Continent at that time. Several specimens were captured in 

 the county, but various others that were seen eluded capture 

 owing to their amazingly swift flight that takes place between 

 sunset and sunrise. Through Dr. G. E. J. Crallan's kindness, 

 our President and the writer each received four eggs laid by a 

 female taken at Ferndown, near Wimborne, and from these the 

 former reared one and the latter three lovely moths, which, so 

 far as we are aware, are the only ones that have been bred from 

 some numbers of eggs obtained from specimens caught in 

 Britain in 1904. I was fortunate in finding in East Dorset two 

 species of moths that have not previously been found in the 

 county (one of them, viz., Eupithecia scabiosata, Bkh. (subumbrata, 

 Gn.), has, however, been erroneously recorded therefrom more 

 than once), and made several other most interesting captures 

 and discoveries, which will be chronicled in due course 

 (E. R. B.). 



