5. April 1913. 



No. 7. 



XXVIll. Jahrgang. 



Societas entomologica. 



Organ für den internationalen Entomologen =Verein. 



Journal de la Société entomologique internationale. 



Journal of the International Entomological Society. 



„Vereinigt mit Entomologischer Rundschau und Insektenbörse." 



Gegründet lSS6 von Fritz Rühl, fongefülut von seinen Erben unter Mitwirkung bedeutender Entomologen und hervorragender Fachleute. 



Alle wissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen und 

 Originalbeiträge sind an Herrn Fritz 

 Rühl's Erben in Zürich V zu richten, 

 geschäftliclie Mitteilungen, Zahlungen etc. 

 dagegen direkt an den Verlag des Seitz- 

 schen Werkes (Alfred Kernen), Stutt- 

 gart, Poststr. 7. 



Toute la correspondance scientifique et 

 les contributions originales sont à envoyer 

 aux Héritiers de Mr. Fritz Rühl à Zu- 

 rich V. Pour toutes les autres communi- 

 cations, payements etc. s'adresser à Ver- 

 lag des Seitz'schen Werkes (Alfred 

 Kernen), Stuttgart, Poststr. 7. 



Die Socictas entomologica erscheint gemeinsam mit der Entomologischen Rundschau und der Insektenbörse. 



Abonnementspreis der 3 vereinigten Zeitschriften Mk. 1..50 vierteljälirlicll bei postfreier Zusendung innerhalb Deutschland und 



Oesterreich, fürs Ausland Portozuschlag — 50 Pfennig vierteljährlich. Erfüllungsort beiderseits Stuttgart. 



Any scientific correspondence and origi- 

 nal contributions to be addressed to Mr. 

 Fritz Rühl's Heirs in Zürich V. AU 

 other communications, payments etc. to be 

 sent to Verlag des Seitz'schen Werkes 

 (Alfred Kernen), Stuttgart, Poststr. 7. 



57. 83:15 



Tlic Woiulcrfiil Sights of tlic English 

 CloYcr Field. 



by A. H. Siointon. 



It is the fashion to cultivate clover on the Eng- 

 lish sea coast, certain of the pea tribe flourish on the 

 margin of the salt sea and ' botanical rarities are 

 sought for along the sea cliffs in the south, especially 

 at the Lizard where the Reverend C. A. Johns 

 picked the Trifolium Molinerii, probably a sport of 

 incarnatum grown for fodder whose crimson blos- 

 soms on the railway banks attract the eye, Bocconi 

 and strictum; whereas stellatum has been only 

 noticed groA\dng on the shingle in Shoreham harbour. 

 Whether these like the first cited have claims to 

 have been introduced with clover seed, or ballast, 

 or whether they are the relics of a littoral flora may 

 form the subject of a summer revery: the red clover, 

 pratense, the white clover, repens, or the sanfoin, 

 viciaefolia, are usually noticed in cultivation during 

 a hohday at the sea side where the bees are bus_y 

 crossing the white with the red; so that we discover 

 pink varieties of pratense or of medium that grows 

 zigzag in the shade and thrives better on dry soil. 

 It is surmised the Romans may have introduced thet 

 purple flowered sativa, or lucern, on which the 

 Persians are accredited to have pastured their war 

 horses ; still in cultivation it now grows mid on the 

 sea coast of the island of Alderney. Three butterflies 

 Vanessa cardui, known as the Painted Ladj^ said 

 to be common everywhere excepting in South 

 America; and Colias edusa and hyale, known to our 

 schoolboj's as the Clouded and Pale Clouded Yellow 

 appear phenomenally every three, four, five, or 

 seven j^ears, and cause warning boards forbidding 

 trespass to be erected in the clover fields. All these 

 have their time and season to increase and diminish 

 regulated by the sun that causes all things to re- 

 joice. 



When the shower clears off from June to October 

 and the robin begins to sing a fussy little moth, 

 Plusia gamma, with a typical silver Y on its \vings 

 may be seen \Ainnowing at the heads of the clover 

 that smell sweetly of hone}^: but it is so omnipresent 

 that it does not attract much notice except when a 

 cold and rainy summer arrives such as 1829 when 

 Professor James Rennie of King's College, London, 

 remarked that it was almost the only moth which 

 appeared to be plentiful: it again attracted atten- 

 tion in 1837 and 1842. But there is nothing British 

 about the gamma Moth it starts up everywhere in 

 Europe from the hedge and garden plot, it is met 

 with in the north of Africa, in Asia as far south 

 as the Himalaj^as and in Western North America; 

 which looks as if it did not take its j)assage in a ship 

 but boldly flew across Berhring's Straits in the 

 stilly radiance of the artic summernight. 



The gamma Moth has an omnivorous green 

 caterpillar laced with pale lines that humps when 

 it walks owing to the absence of two jjaLr of its 

 stumps, or prolegs ; whether it never had them or 

 whether it has lost them is a question, the only ex- 

 planation afforded being that it has been found 

 feeding between leaves spun together where legs 

 would be useless. Although the moth is a common 

 object in the country lanes and plentiful at the sea 

 side the caterpillar is only occasionally a subject of 

 comment in the south of England where it was accused 

 of rendering fields of peas leafless at Chichester in 

 the cold and wet summer of 1879. 



The periodical increase of the gamma moth is 

 not confined to the British Islands. The year 1735 

 was rainy in Europe and the cold that brought the 

 influenza lingered in Paris all may, the latter af- 

 flicted Normandy until the end of august; the 

 autumn was stormy and the swallows took their 

 departure form Norfolk at the close of September. 



to be continued. 



i 



