DORSET LEPIDOPTERA. 177 



Clinopodiwn vulgare, which was growing in abundance in one of 

 Mr, Mansel-PleydelPs woods at What/combe. I also observed 

 whilst there some black linear Nepticula-[ikQ mines in the leaves of 

 the same plant which were tenanted by a small larva, certainly not 

 a Nepticula, but doubtless the young larva of S. brunnichella, 

 which would hybernate during the ensuing winter and emerge as a 

 moth in May. These woods are most attractive in appearance, 

 entomologically as well as picturesquely, and with favourable 

 weather would doubtless prove productive, but with the exception 

 of a little collecting done in June, 1890, by Mr. Digby and myself 

 and that done in September last, I am not aware that they have 

 been explored by entomologists, so that most of their treasures are 

 still hidden from human eyes. 



It is a curious coincidence that Mr. Cambridge should have taken 

 for the first time at Bloxworth last May a moth which he was 

 unable to determine satisfactorily, but which he found when on a 

 visit to Oxford in November to be S. brunnichella. This, of 

 course, takes precedence of my discovery of the species at Whatcombe 

 in September. 



The season of 1891 appears to have been a bad one almost every- 

 where and the entomological results small, so that on the whole I 

 have been more fortunate than many of my neighbours. I have 

 hardly alluded to the work of the other entomologists in this county, 

 of which they will no doubt record the more important portions 

 themselves. Each year increases the difficulty of adding to the 

 number of species of Lepidoptera new to Dorset, as we have already 

 a good list, the result of continuous observations extending over 

 nearly 90 years. The same amount of work is now required for 

 adding one new moth which 50 years ago would perhaps have 

 added a dozen, and this is equally true of other scientific knowledge, 

 so that we must not expect much, but be content with the little 

 success that falls to our lot. 



