34 



common, but in 1906 it suddenly became very abundant. 

 I happened to go to the south coast just at the time 

 of this abundance, and was so impressed with what I saw 

 that I ventured to publish my experiences and to suggest 

 that others who might have made observations should do the 

 same. The appeal was not in vain, and there are, scattered 

 through the various entomological publications of the year, 

 a number of records that throw a good deal of light on the 

 subject. Their general purport is to the effect that a few 

 worn specimens were met with during May, but that in the 

 very early days of June the species became exceedingly 

 abundant, and the agreement in the dates when this abund- 

 ance was first noted is truly remarkable. No less than eight 

 records, in which definite dates are given, fix the day on 

 which the great numbers were first observed between June 

 2nd and 5th, and these reports come from districts so far 

 apart as Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Devon, Cornwall, Monmouth, 

 and Hereford. In only two cases is it mentioned when the 

 height of the swarm was over ; my own fixing the date for 

 Eastbourne as 5th ; and another from Bagshott, in Surrey, 

 as the 8th. As to what happened later in the year, reports 

 are scanty ; one mentions larvae on the Northumberland 

 coast in July, while some two or three others speak of the 

 species being not particularly common in autumn. 



I have already mentioned that the first appearance of 

 Deilcphila livomica last year coincided very closely with that 

 of P. cardui. The earliest record is that of the capture of a 

 single specimen in Cornwall on May 30th, and between that 

 date and the middle of June it was reported from Devon, 

 Hants, Dorset, Kent, and Ireland. Unfortunately, exact 

 dates are not always given, but nearly a score of specimens 

 seem to have been taken in the first week in June — just the 

 time when cardui became so abundant. One or two larvae 

 are reported from Sussex in July, and in the later part of the 

 year imagines were again met with. 



With regard to Heliothis pcltigera, although a great deal of 

 detail has been recorded, any exact dates as to when it was 

 first noted in spring are wanting, and the best information 

 that I have been able to obtain is that during May it was 

 frequently taken at flowers of valerian in South Devon. 

 There are also a couple of records which are not very clear, 

 but which appear to show that the species was observed in 

 both Dorset and County Cork in June. Later on larvae 

 were found in some plenty in Devon, and one or two 

 elsewhere, and in August and September moths were 



