50 



be disastrous. Under ordinary conditions of climate the second 

 brood is on the wing during the earlier part of August, and the ova 

 which they deposit hatch about the middle of that month. There is 

 at this time an abundant fresh growth of Galium, on which the larvse 

 feed up comparatively slowly, and pupate about the middle of 

 September, and the moths appear in the following spring. But with 

 the larva? leaving the egg at about, or perhaps after the time when 

 they should have pupated, the chances are that at the time when 

 they should be making their chief growth the weather would be 

 unfavourable for the purpose ; they would consequently progress less 

 rapidly than they should, and would be unable to become full-fed 

 during a suitable period, and, hybernation being unnatural to them, 

 they would perish. Probably, even in an exceptionally warm season, 

 some members of the second brood would appear sufficiently late to 

 prevent the resultant larva? becoming full-fed before their normal 

 time, and thus preserve the species from so great a thinning down of 

 numbers as might otherwise be the case. 



Among other species met with, but which do not call for any 

 special comment, may be mentioned Zygcena filipetidula, one imago 

 and a few empty cocoons, but the species appeared to have been 

 anything but common ; Lithosia lurideola, odd specimens ; Drepana 

 cultraria, one or two among the beech trees at Paradise, where also 

 a larva of Eugonia fuscantaria was found suspended by a silken 

 thread from an ash. Eubolia bipuiictaria was, of course, met with 

 plentifully in suitable situations on the downs, E. limitata and 

 Aspilates ochrearia also occurring, but in smaller numbers. On a 

 remote and almost inaccessible corner of the downs I was delighted 

 to again fall in with a solitary example of Odontia dentalis and a few 

 specimens of Botys flavahs, both of which species I had feared were 

 lost to the immediate neighbourhood. Stefiia punctalis was quite 

 common, and there was no lack of Nomophila noctuella (kybridalis). 

 Rivula sericealis was also taken, and the ditches on the marsh lands 

 literally swarmed with Cataclysta lemnata. 



The mention of the marshes reminds me that the Lepidoptera did 

 not absorb the whole of our attention, and that although personally 

 I was occupied chiefly by that order, my son, who accompanied 

 me on most of my rambles, took some little interest in the Mollusca, 

 and during our holiday he managed to get together some twenty 

 species of land and fresh-water snails ; not a very large number, 

 perhaps, but the exceptional dryness of the season no doubt pre- 

 vented him finding many species that would have been easy to get in 

 a more suitable one. I have on a previous occasion (" Proa," 1898, 

 p. 56) reverted to the enormous hordes of Helix aspersa that infest 

 the parades, yet it was remarkable how very few of them were to be 

 seen in this dry weather. The dykes in the Pevensey marshes have 

 long pictured to my mind a rich harvest of aquatic species, and my 

 son readily accepted a suggestion that we should spend an afternoon 

 in exploring them. I am not sufficiently well versed in the gentle 



