﻿258 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



sudden decrease in the temperature, and scarcely an insect to be seen on 

 the wing, so we consoled ourselves with the philosophical reflection that we 

 were not losing much by our omission. — Rkihard South. 



A Week in the New Forest. — Although the season is not as yet 

 very far advanced, a few notes on the result of a week's collecting at 

 Lyndhurst may perhaps be of interest to those readers of ' The Entomo- 

 logist ' who intend to work the New Forest later in the summer. I arrived 

 at Lyndhurst on June 21st, and immediately called upon a well-known 

 local entomologist of great experience. His report was not encouraging, 

 and, unfortunately, was fully borne out by my subsequent experience. 

 After a futile night's sugaring, and a day's rest on the Sunday, I began 

 work in earnest on the 23rd. The weather was very hot, but the sky was 

 thickly clouded over all day, and in consequence everything had to be 

 beaten up. The only insects which put in an appearance were Argynnis 

 selene on the heaths, and the ubiquitous Epinephele ianira, whose mission 

 in life seems to be to " come out strong " under depressing circumstances. 

 However, by hard work at beating, I managed to secure by one o'clock 

 some fine Metrocampa margaritaria, Boarmia repandata (including some 

 pretty varieties), Bapta taminata, Pararge egeria, Eubolia plumbaria 

 (palumbaria), Ephyra linearia (trilinearia), and a beautiful pair of Drepana 

 falcataria (falcula), which were taken from birch. I afterwards worked 

 the heath, and got Nemeophila russula in fine condition, Bupalus piniaria 

 (the latter was very abundant), Macaria liturata, and other common things. 

 The evening work was, as usual, a complete failure., On the 24th I was 

 joined by a friend, but, though we worked the woods and heaths hard, we were 

 only rewarded with N. russula, Gonepteryx rhamni, (very battered in nearly 

 every instance), some clouded varieties of Boarmia repandata, B. piniaria, 

 a pair of Hepialus hectus, and other insignificant captures, up till the 27th. 

 All this time sugaring proved absolutely fruitless, the mixture seeming to 

 be far more attractive to sundry slugs, of vast bulk and forbidding appear- 

 ance, than to Noctuae. On the 27th we tried larva beating, in the absence 

 of all imagines, but with no result worth recording. At last we were 

 favoured with a gleam of sunshine, and saw Argynnis paphia, evidently 

 only just out, one Thecla rubi, a few Lyccena icarus (alexis) and agon, and. 

 Ccenonympha pamplxilus, as well as the usual swarms of P. egeria, B. 

 piniaria, &c. I also got one Drepana lacertula, in fine condition, close to 

 the spot where I had previously taken D. falcula. In the evening a few 

 moths came to sugar, including Aplecta nebulosa, Thyatira batis, and 

 Noctua brunnea. This was the wind-up to our visit, and we left next 

 morning. I attribute our failure to three chief causes — bad weather, a late 

 season, and the scarcity of Lepidoptera in general. For the most part the 

 Sun refused to show himself, and the weather was ungenial. The fact that 

 on our last day's excursion we found more variety in the species taken, 

 coupled with the first appearance of Noctuae at sugar, induces me to think 

 that we should have done better a week or ten days later. Still it was only 

 too painfully apparent that there was a deplorable dearth of Lepidoptera. 

 Other orders of insects were largely represented, the flies in particular, to 

 an extent which rendered them very troublesome ; while the Stag Beetle 

 by night, and Libellula splendens by day, literally swarmed. An ominous 

 fact was the absolute dearth of Diurni, even of the commonest kinds, and 

 Limenitis sibylla did not cross our path at all, though it should certainly 

 have been out during the latter days of our stay. I believe a solitary 



