320 THE entomologist's record. 



One of the rarest of our l^ritish moths, and certainly one of the 

 Aveakest on the wing, is Deiopcia pnlchella, yet this species has an 

 innncnse geographical range, extending over the greater part of the 

 Old World. Everywhere, however, its ordinary weakness of flight has 

 heen noticed. In spite of this, on March 27th, 1885, the sailing vessel 

 Pleione, which was homeward bound from Wellington in New Zealand, 

 and had not touched at any point after leaving Wellington, was 

 surrounded in lat. 0". 47' N., long. 82°. 50' W. (or about mid-Atlantic) 

 by an immense swarm of this moth, many individuals of which alighted 

 on the vessel. At this time, she was 440 miles from the nearest point 

 of the American coast and 960 miles from the Cape Verde Islands, the 

 nearest land in which the species is known to occur. Other well-known 

 instances of moths having been captured or observed at sea, many 

 miles from land, have been recorded. Tugwell reports {Entom., vi., p. 

 80), on the authority of Captain Fuller of the steamship Northumbria, 

 that, in September, 1871, when about twenty miles from Oporto, in fine 

 weather, a very considerable number of moths made their appearance 

 during the evening, and settled on the masts and sails of the ship, and 

 these are described as "clustering in masses all over the ship." The 

 species proved to be Plmia tiamma. Lucas records [Science, ix., p. 840) 

 that while in 25° S. lat., and a thousand miles from the nearest portion 

 of the coast of Brazil, his party " encountered several light squalls of 

 wind and rain, during one of which two butterflies were driven past. 

 The weather continued squally all night and for part of the next day, 

 the wind coming from the westward. The following morning it was 

 found that quite a number of lepidoptera had come on board and 

 ensconced themselves in various places sheltered from the wind. They 

 were mostly, if not wholly, nocturnal species of small size, although 

 one large hawk-moth was among them. About twelve or fifteen 

 specimens, representing nearly as many species were captured, and 

 others seen, so that not less than twenty or thirty individuals must 

 have reached the ship." Leech recorded {Ent., xiv., p. 19) that in a 

 voyage across the Channel in 1880 he searched the steamer for outward 

 bound moths and found two Bnjophila )intralifi, one Triphaena prunnba, 

 one CusDiia trapezina, besides several bees and wasps, and, on his return, 

 three Plnsia gamma and one Mania maura. Cockerell notes [Ent. Mo. 

 Ma(j., xxi., p. 159) that in June, 1879, he was crossing St. George's 

 Channel in a steamship, when the weather was warm and misty, with 

 little if any wind. About the middle of the day a number of insects 

 began to alight on the vessel, whilst others were flying around, 

 among those observed being riiranieis cardai, Plmia (/amma, X(miopkila 

 noctnella, Ac, whilst among the Diptera was Mnsea caesar. He con- 

 sidered this movement to (or from) Ireland to have been quite 

 voluntary. Mathew writes (P^nt., xxxi., p. 220) that, on August 

 15th-16th, 1898, H.M.S. Hawke was swarming with XomopJiila 

 noctnella, which had been seen every day since Gibraltar was left 

 (August 11th), but only appeared on the 15th in such large numbers. 

 The weather was perfectly calm and at noon of the 15th the nearest 

 land. Cape Caccia, Sardinia, was 82 miles north-east of the ship whilst 

 on the 16th, at 8 a.m., the ship was some 25 miles north of Corsica. 

 Besides this species several I'l/rameis canlid, Macnxjlossa stellatarnm, 

 Plmia (jamma and Scojnda ferriKjalis were observed. Kerry notes 

 (Ent., xi., pp. 269-70) that on the morning of June 27th, 1878, thou- 



