5 



THE SEASON OF 1895 AT SKIP WITH 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA. 



Rkv. C. D. ASH, B.A., 



r scar of $ktftmtk\ P res-dent of the En aologkal Section ot the \orishire XatW'iusis* 



I 'nion. 



In many respects the season of 1895 was, in this district, a 

 great improvement upon the preceding one, and may, I think, be 

 reasonably regarded as a fairly good one. Almost all species were 

 much more abundant than last year, and a considerable number 

 put in an appearance which were not included in last year's list. 

 The insects of the year were undoubtedly Fieri* rapec, Vanessa 

 urtiaz y Cluerocampa porcellus, Triphmna pronuba, and Atuhocelis 

 litem, all of which were exceedingly abundant, the larvae of the 

 first -named working terrible destruction among garden produce. 



r*i 



Dilobx 



cephala, hundreds of which might have been gathered from the 

 hawthorn hedges in June. Of species observed here for the first 

 time, the best were about a dozen of a nice dark form of Tephrosia 

 biundularia, closely resembling, though apparently not quite 

 identical with, the var. de/amereusis which is taken near York. 

 These specimens all occurred in one narrow little strip of alder 

 coppice, and were in the proportion of about eight to ten of the 

 type, two extremely pale specimens being taken in the same place. 

 Other uncommon species observed were Said bembeciformis (i), 

 Xanthia gilvago (2), and Cirrlurdia xerampelina var. unicolor (1); 

 the two latter at sugar in September. Among the miero-lepidoptera 

 several fresh species were noticed, including a number of the mines 

 of a JJthocolletis in leaves of Mountain Ash, which will, I hope, 

 prove to be JL sorbi. 



Owing to a severe chill, contracted at the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 t ■ >n and Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union joint excursion to 

 Broughton Woods on June 3rd, my collecting during the rest of 

 that month, and during the very rainy July, was a great deal inter- 

 rupted, while August was spent in the Isle of Man : consequently, 

 the notes on these months are but fragmentary, which must be my 

 excuse for the comparatively "poor list of fresh micro-kpidoptera 

 observed, the best of the Tortrix season having been practically 

 fost One species of this group which was very rare in 1894, viz., 

 4mphysa gcrningana, absolutely swarmed at the end of July 

 Skipwith Common, and this was not a bad example of the difference 

 between the two seasons. 



n 



March j 5. 



