t4 LEPIDOPTERA IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF YORK, 1893. 
here ; on the whole, species have appeared ud a fortnight earlier 
than visual, in many instances three weeks, and in some exceptional 
cases even a month in advance of ordinary seasons. 
Melanism.— Instances of melanism in specimens captured this 
season have not been up to the average; a very large number of the 
Noctuz and Geometre (especially the former), which occur in the 
neighbourhood of York, are more or less subject to melanism ; a full 
list of the species which show this tendency and have come under 
my observation will be given at some future date. 
Sallows were very unproductive, being well out by the 1oth of 
March, and doubtless on this account, the generally seductive 
blossoms failed to attract the Zentocampide in anything like their 
usual numbers. 
ugar,—Whilst we have had very few poor nights at sugar, the 
quantity has rarely been great and the quality invariably poor, the 
reason for this having been, in my opinion, not the counter attraction 
of honey-dew, at vg I have noticed very few moths, but the general 
scarcity of Noct 
Ivy-blossom. ma the 30th September, I had my first night at 
Ivy-blossom, in the Westwood, Beverley, where the Ivy is especially 
abundant, clinging in wild luxuriance around the fine old hawthorn 
trees, which here form such a conspicuous feature of the landscape, 
but although the night was favourable from a meteorological point of 
view, the blossoms fine, large, and plentiful, and the odour perceptible 
even to human nostrils, our would-be guests failed to put in an 
appearance, except by ones and twos, quite different to the nights at 
Ivy-blossom one often reads about. A friend of mine, who has 
worked Ivy on numerous occasions this season informs me that he 
has had almost uniformly bad luck. 
Geometrz have been on the whole very scarce, and ‘mothing’ 
at and after dusk uniformly unproductive. In the daytime at rest 
on tree trunks, igs, etc, ‘as especially the former, Zephrosia 
biundularia and iety delamerensis, Asthena cambricaria, 
A. ssc Lihophers lobulata, Tephrosia punctulata, Asthena sylvata, 
Abraxas ulmata, etc., have been airly common, whilst Zomaspilis 
marginata, Thera variata, and Fidonia piniaria, could be obtained 
in abundance by means of the ‘ beating stick.’ 
Scarcity of Lepidoptera.—I think this has been due in 
a great measure to the extraordinary abundance of their natural 
enemies, Ichneumons, Wasps, Dragon-flies, and Bats, which, together 
with Swifts, Nightjars, and other insectivorous birds have, thanks to 
; fine weather, been enabled better to follow their work of 
destruction, and lastly, and by no means least, to the great drought 
o 
ing 
4") 
Naturalist, 
