356 MEETINGS. 



REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION. 



The past season has been a most interesting one as far 

 as entomology has been concerned. 



Amongst Butterflies, Pyrantels cardui, the Painted Lady, 

 Pyrameis atalanta, the Red Admiral, and Lyccena argiolus, 

 the Holly Blue, have been unusually abundant during the 

 autumn ; but the butterfly of the year has been Lampides 

 Boetica, the Long-tailed Blue. More than one hundred 

 specimens of this species were taken in Guernsey and Sark 

 during September, most of them by Rev. F. E. Lowe. It 

 was last recorded in the report for 1892, when Rev. F. E. 

 Lowe took a single specimen. Previous records were in 1889, 

 when Mr. Spencer, jun., took one near Fort George; one in 

 1872, taken by the late Miss L. Renouf in her garden, Burnt 

 Lane ; and eight specimens captured by the same lady in 

 1859, also in her garden. In connection with these last 

 mentioned captures, the following notes, published in the 

 Entomologist's Annual for 1860, by the late Mr. H. T. 

 Stainton, will be interesting : " Another hot summer (1859), 

 in immediate succession to the two previous unusually hot 

 summers, has again tended to swell our lists with species 

 usually confined to the south of Europe. 



" The occurrence of a specimen of Lampides Boetica on 

 the chalk downs in Sussex, has naturally created a consider- 

 able sensation. We, however, see nothing very alarming in 

 this descent of a foreigner on our own coasts, and we for- 

 tunately had an opportunity of anticipating the probability 

 of such an occurrence. A correspondent, located almost 

 within sight of Cherbourg, had written to narrate the appear- 

 ance in 1859 of a butterfly not seen in Guernsey for about 

 twenty years, and this insect, which showed a partiality for a 

 bed of parsnips, proved to be Polyommatus (Lampides) Boetica. 

 Subsequently a correspondent in Madeira gave the interesting 

 information that the larva feeds in the pods of peas ; probably 

 the parsnip bed at Guernsey bordered a row of peas." 



It is interesting to note that although so abundant in the 

 Channel Islands this year, I can only find two records of its 

 capture in England, one at Winchester on September 1st, and 

 one at Deal on the 16th of the same month. A valuable -and 

 interesting paper on the distribution of this species, which 

 was read before the Society at the October meeting by the 

 Rev. F. E. Lowe, will be found in the Transactions. 



The Humming Bird Hawk Moth, Macroghssa stellatarutn, 

 has been abundant in all the islands, and from numerous 



