422 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



water's edge, when it can be easily boxed. It is truly a 

 water insect, as often only its head is above the surface, and 

 when placed in a pill-box soon dies. These facts may be 

 well known to the majority of the readers of the * Ento- 

 mologist,' but they will possibly interest a few who are 

 unacquainted with an insect whose position in our list of 

 Lepidoptera has more than once been changed, and whose 

 claim even to the order of Lepidoptera has been disputed. — 

 G, Bentley Corbin. 



Lepidoptera at Wimbledon Common; June 7, 1871. — I 

 have gone out insect-hunting on unfavourable days in June, 

 yet scarcely remember one to equal the above-named day, 

 when my evil genius led me to the Common, which, despite 

 the Volunteers, is still one of the best spots for insects within 

 a moderate distance of London. The wind fluctuated from 

 north to east, and from east to north; and animal and vege- 

 table life were alike suffering under the continued unfavour- 

 able influences. On, or nearly about, this date, I have seen 

 flying, pretty freely, porata, punctata, petraria, clathrata, 

 maculata, strigillaria, pusaria, lactearia, and other Geometrse, 

 which are partial to the underwood which grows in the 

 ravines or hollows. What moths, however, were about at 

 this time kept themselves so cjosely concealed that they 

 were not to be dislodged even by blows of the beating-stick ; 

 and an examination of a long stretch of fence in and about 

 the park produced no Macros, but only a few Tineae of the 

 commonest species. Larvae, as far as could be told in a 

 hasty examination, were as scarce as images; and, unques- 

 tionably, numbers have been destroyed by the chill days and 

 colder nights we have had in May and June. Yponomeuta 

 padella was plentiful, as usual, on the hedges, though back- 

 ward in its growth. I received a renewed proof of the fact, 

 that in cold weather the ravages committed by larvae upon 

 the foliage of plants are far more injurious than when the 

 temperature is higher. The hawthorn, in various places, 

 presented a miserable appearance where these larvae were 

 feeding, not entirely to be explained as being the immediate 

 efiiect of their jaws, but produced, as 1 conceive, secondarily, 

 because the vitality of the plant languished under the 

 uncongenial influence of the weather. — J. R, S, Clifford ; 

 59, Robert Street, Chelsea, 



