Report of the Field Meeting held at Otford, Kent, 

 June 2ist, 1902. 



By Robert Adkin, F.E.S. Read January Zth, 1903. 



In the report of the field meeting held at Brasted in July, 1901, I 

 dwelt somewhat fully on my reasons for selecting that locality, and it 

 will be remembered that our operations were then carried out on the 

 ragstone and sandy hills to the south of the valley through which 

 the upper waters of the river Darenth flow. To the north of this 

 valley the hills are more broken in contour, and consist largely of 

 chalk soil. Some four or five miles below Brasted the river bends 

 away in a northerly direction, and, flowing through a valley that 

 bisects this range of hills, ultimately finds its way into the Thames at 

 Dartford Creek. Otford, the base from which the field meeting now 

 under review was undertaken, is situated to the east of the river, just 

 after it has taken its northerly course. The hill rising from it is one 

 of the most chalky of the range, and, having a south-westerly aspect, 

 is particularly suitable for a naturalist's hunting-ground. Well 

 within my own memory the greater portion of this hillside was an 

 uncultivated down, capped by woods which, if private property, were 

 sufficiently open for all practical purposes. I know of few places 

 where insect life was more abundant ; Argynnis aglaia would fly on 

 the down sides in bewildering profusion, Lycaua corydon had a very 

 flourishing colony, few knapweed heads were in their season 

 untenanted by Eremobia ochroktica, to say nothing of the innumer- 

 able species of Micros that found employment for one at any time of 

 the day and well into the night. 



But it is hardly to be expected that such advantageous situations 

 can, in these days, long remain unappropriated, especially when 

 within some twenty miles of London, and it is therefore not surprising 

 to find that a stately mansion has been reared in a hollow on the hill- 

 side, and a large portion of the down converted into the surrounding 

 park, thus materially circumscribing the available open land ; yet I 

 venture to think that there is still ample opportunity for an after- 

 noon's profitable collecting by those who are content to expend their 

 energies on the fringes of the woods, the few acres of still open 

 ■waste land, and last, but not least, the hedge banks of the surround- 

 ing lanes, which are unusually lieavy hereabout, and not only afford 

 cover for numerous moths, but their varied growth provides suitable 

 pabulum for a very considerable assortment of herbaceous and tree- 

 feeding larvae. Therefore, in spite of its present disadvantages, the 

 neighbourhood appeared to me to offer a suitable locale for a field 

 meeting^. 



