CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 93 



rose of aphides. In a few minutes every aphis was devoured except 

 a male, which, upon being attacked, took to flight, as also did the 

 caddis. 



Moths appeared again at the electric lamps, and on the 16th I 

 got a male and female A. agathina. Curiously enough this was one of 

 the few unrepresented species in my collection of Macro-Lepidoptera, 

 and I was uncertain of my captures until they were confirmed by Mr. 

 South. 



The 25th was the warmest day of the season since May 11th, the 

 thermometer registering eighty degrees in the shade and one hundred 

 and eighteen degrees in the sun. The month closed with a falling 

 barometer. It was interesting to note that while the United Kingdom 

 was enjoying an Indian summer, Newfoundland, Spain, Portugal, 

 and France were smitten by storms of terrific violence. The 

 tornado with its downpour reached as far south as Casa Blanca 

 on the Moorish coast of Africa, the French camp being wrecked on 

 the 26th. 



Very little entomology could be done in October. As predicted 

 by the barometer the 1st was a day of rain, but, from that date to 

 the 6th, the weather improved and it was fine, warm and sunny on 

 the whole. A propos of spiders it was interesting to read that the 

 airship "Nulli Secundus " met with "cobwebs, high up" in its ascent 

 on the 5th, and that the balloon was afterwards found to be covered 

 with them. I am not aware that the appeal to scientists for an 

 explanation met with a response, but the cobwebs were doubtless 

 gossamers or spider's threads, which float in the air and, especially 

 in a dry atmosphere, rise to a considerable height, travel long 

 distances on the breeze and distribute the spiders' young. A similar 

 case of insect distribution is seen in the Woolly Aphis {Schizoneura 

 lanigera) on apple trees, with its white cottony secretion enabling 

 the young Aphides to travel with the winds from tree to tree. The 

 lowest London temperature on October 8th was forty- six degrees — ■ 

 only one degree warmer than Lapland, and the remainder of the 

 month was unusually cold and wet. The usual autumn moths — 

 Hydroacia viicacea, Anchocelis pistacina, Phlogophora meticulosa, 

 Aporopkyla lutulenta, A. nigra, P. gamma, Ennomos tiliaria, E. 

 fuscantaria, Hyhernia defoliaria, Cheimatobia brumata, with an 

 occasional Poecilocampa populi, Cirrhoedia xerampelina, and Dasy- 

 polia templi — appeared at the electric lamps, but in diminished 

 numbers. 



November is often an enjoyable month, but calm, sunny days 

 were absent in 1907. On the 25th snow fell in Cumberland, North 

 Wales, Shropshire, and Lincolnshire. LarvEe of Boarmia repandata 

 began hybernating as early as the 20th of October; They do not 

 move from the position taken up under dead leaves, &c., until early 

 spring. Larvae of A. nebulosa, on the contrary, often woke up in 

 the inclement December, and indeed throughout the winter, wan- 

 dered about their cages, and even ate a little dock. — J. Arkle ; 

 Chester. 



