2T4 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



easy day's excursion, viz., miles of fir woods, acres of heather land, 

 extensive oak woods, chalk hills, and the ordinary field and hedgerow 

 country. All these districts produce their own pecuHar fauna in 

 abundance. I have only been one year in Aldershot, and during that 

 time I have really had very little leisure for entomological expedi- 

 tions. Modern soldiering at Aldershot requires that one shall devote 

 all one's time and energy to it. On the other hand, when carrying 

 out military training one traverses a large expanse of country, and 

 lines of troops in extended order will make almost any insect move 

 out of heather and woods. My experience, therefore, of the lepido- 

 pterous fauna of the Aldershot district has been more that of observing 

 than collecting. I cannot collect numbers of any insect, as it would 

 not be possible for me to carry cabinets all over the world, and also 

 I am very much against the practice of collecting " series." I often 

 read with dismay in the ' Entomologist ' how So-and-so caught " a 

 nice series " of some dozens of a rare insect. Soon half the butterflies 

 and moths of the British Isles will become extinct if collectors go on 

 amassing "series." One wonders why the various entomological 

 societies do not protest against this type of wholesale slaughter. But 

 I must return to the butterflies and moths that I have come across 

 whilst riding about, and which have come to the sugar patches which 

 I always keep going in my garden. 



Of butterflies I have met .with thirty-six species. Six other 

 species, including Apatura iris, occur occasionally, I have heard, 

 and I hope to obtain them next season. Of those species that I 

 myself saw, Argynnis pa^j/im swarmed in some woods, A. selene and 

 A. euphrosynev^&re fairly common, and A. aglaia, also A. adippe, were 

 met with. Limenitis sibylla w^as very numerous. One day whilst 

 riding through a wood I counted four white admirals on one small 

 blackberry bush. I also came across this insect, quite close to Aider- 

 shot town, engaged in the rather peculiar pursuit, for it, of sailing 

 about in glaring sunshine over a small pond, occasionally resting on 

 the water-lily leaves. The pond was of course in a wood. Satyrus 

 semele swarms everywhere, and Epinephele tithonus is equally common. 

 Zephyrus querais was plentiful in all oak woods, and Lycana astrarche, 

 L. corydon, Gujndo minima, and Cyaniris argiolus all occurred freely 

 in the right spots. 



The list of moths noticed would be too long to enumerate. All 

 the commoner species seem to abound, and no doubt, had I the time 

 available in wdiich to work the district systematically and breed 

 larvae, I could obtain all the Macro- Lepidoptera, except those species 

 which are peculiar to the north, the fens, or the coast. Of local or 

 rare species I have come across the following : — Hemaris homhyli- 

 formis, Hylophila hicolorana, Nola confusalis, Gochilidon Umacodes, 

 Drepana binaria, P. dictceoides, Acronycta leporina, Nonagria typhce, 

 Apamea unaniynis, A. op)hiogramma, Plusia morieta, Erastia fuscula, 

 Hadena genista, Calymnia pyralina, Aporophila nigra, Agrotis vesti- 

 gialis, Orrhodia rubiginea, Xylina semibrunnea, Epione apiciaria, 

 M. unangidata, Anticlea riibidata, Coremia quadrifasciaria, Boarmia 

 consortaria, Tejjhrosia extersaria, and Collix sparsata. Of these G. 

 pyralina seems to have its headquarters in my orchard. If I were 

 a "series" collector, I could have taken a couple of dozen this 



