Yorkshire Naturalists' Union : Annual Report, 1909. 51 



unusually plentiful throughout the season, and this almost con- 

 tinuously in spite of heavy rain storms. For this reason, " sugar- 

 ing " has been an almost entire faihue until very late in the season. 

 Mr. B. Morley, on the i8th of July (after repeated failure with 

 sugar during the summer), tried it on railings on the moors, at an 

 altitude of 1800 feet, and found that insects came to it in swarms. 



Butterflies appear to have been unusually scarce with the 

 exception of the two Whites. These latter have been so abundant 

 as to have become quite a plague in parts of the county, the larvae 

 resulting from them literally devastating kitchen gardens in many 

 instances. The larger species seem to have been the more abun- 

 dant. 



No very great rarities appear to have been taken. Mr. L. S. 

 Brady records E. coronata as having been abundant near Sheffield ; 

 Mr. B. Morley has taken C. fluctuosa in Haw Park, and A. alni 

 has been found again in the same locality. The Rev. T. B. 

 Eddrup writes that two specimens of Z. aesculi have been captured 

 at Horbury. 



Mr. L. S. Brady records an almost black specimen of A. 

 menyanthidis, and Mr. J. Hooper has taken several C. snffuniata 

 var. porritii, near Wakefield. Mr. Morley, in taking notes on the 

 percentages of types to vars. in the case of H. progemmaria and 

 its dark form fuscata, found that whereas in the woods not more 

 than one specimen in ten will show melanism, in the lanes and 

 hedge-rows the proportions are reversed, and only about one 

 specimen in seven will be of the type form. 



Mr. H. Dyson records a specimen of A. atropos which was 

 taken at light at Skelmanthorpe, and also the presence of M. maura 

 on sugar, so exceptionally late as the beginning of October. 



An unusual abundance of many kinds of larvae during the 

 autumn may very possibly produce a corresponding swarm of 

 imagines next summer. 



The following is the Committee for 1910 : — 

 President — M. L. Thompson. 

 Secretaries — (For Lepidoptera), A. Whitaker, Barnsle}/, and 



B. Morley, Skelmanthorpe ; (Hymenoptera, Hemip- 



tera and Diptera), W. Denison Roebuck, Leeds ; 



(Neuroptera, Orthoptera, and Trichoptera), G. T. 



Porritt, Huddersfieki ; (Coleoptera), H. H. Corbett, 



Doncaster. 

 Representative on Executive — W^ Hewett, York. 

 Representative on Committee of Suggestions — W. Hewett. 



Coieoptera Committee.— Mr. H. H. Corbett writes : — 

 A season remarkable for the absence of sunshine, and 

 prevalence of cold, has had just the effect upon the Coleoptera 

 that one would expect. The general report from members of 

 the Committee and others, has been — " very few insects ; and 

 these of the commonest." Of course, there are some additions to 



1910 Jan. 1. 



