FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 285 



early May, but in the cooler climate of Norden they were later 

 in leaving their winter quarters, not beginning to appear 

 commonly until towards the end of May, and continuing plentiful 

 throughout June. The individuals that were netted and killed 

 belonged to the three species Vespa rufa, V. germam'ca, and V. 

 vulgaris, the first-named being more numerous than either of the 

 others. I left home on August 28, up to which date, doubtless 

 owing to the abnormally cold, moist, and sunless apology for a 

 summer, wasps had been only conspicuous by their apparently 

 complete absence ever since the disappearance of the queens 

 about two months previously, and I was informed that they were 

 very scarce during the autumn. (E. R. B.) 



PLAGUE OF GOOSEBERRY SAWFLY (A T ematus grossularuB). 

 Notwithstanding the fact that countless multitudes of the Goose- 

 berry Sawfly in its earlier stages have been gathered on my 

 gooseberry and currant bushes in each of the three preceding 

 years and destroyed, this irrepressible pest again reappeared on 

 them in as great abundance as ever, and enormous numbers of 

 its eggs and larvae were collected by hand from the beginning of 

 April, when the earliest larvae hatched out, until the end of July. 

 (E. R. B.) 



Plusia on'chalcea, F. Mr. A. Morgan records the capture of 

 a specimen of this moth at light at Puddletown on Aug. i. 

 (X. M. R.) 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA. Great press of indoor entomo- 

 logical work, combined with the persistently wet, cold, and 

 ungenial weather throughout the spring and summer, resulted 

 in my doing comparatively little collecting in Dorset. My 

 experience, however, was quite sufficient to show that it was an 

 extremely backward, and, on the whole, a remarkably bad season 

 for both Macro and Micro-Lepidoptera. But, even in the most 

 disappointing years, some species, however few, will always 

 appear in unwonted numbers, and 1907 formed no exception to 

 this rule, in proof of which it may be mentioned that some 

 friends, who " sugared " energetically in East Dorset during June 

 and July, found Agrotis lunigera, Stph., in the utmost profusion, 



