HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



129 



and the afore-mentioned Choleva, and Ulster blmacu- 

 tatus in moles, etc. Water was now teeming with 

 insect life ; H. fuclpes, P. melanocephahcs, small 

 water-beetles and small water-boatmen [Corixa Lin- 

 ntzi] being met with in every piece of pond-weed in 

 every pond and ditch, together with the larvae of 

 both the Agrionldce and Libellulldce. Mela?iippe 

 fluctuata, that garden pest, emerged from its pupae 

 on the 6th. On the 8th of April the first Smerinthus 

 populi underwent its ecdysis together with Tanlo- 

 campa incerta, which were pretty well over, and 

 Spilosoma menthastri. Both Bombus terrcstris and 

 B. lapidarius were now very common, with a sprink- 

 ling of B. Harristelhcs and B. muscorum, Colletes 

 ■cunlcularia, Andrena thoracica and A. cineraria, and 

 an occasional Anthophora rettisa. By the 9th the 

 larvae of A. caja were getting quite large and very 

 plentiful, together with A. grossulariata, which seems 

 scarcer here than in most towns. I also took a 

 specimen of Silpha atrata which appeared to have 

 hardly developed properly, the usual black elytra 

 being of quite a brown tinge. I have taken several 

 in this apparently imperfectly coloured condition, the 

 tinge being nearly always unicolorous and semi-trans- 

 parent ; I have also taken this variety, if variety it 

 be, at Beccles, in North Suffolk. About the 10th of 

 April Pieris brassicce became common, and ten days 

 later was flying about in hundreds together with P. 

 rapes and, in a lesser degree, P. napi. On the 12th, 

 Odontopera bidentata emerged from pupa ; the larvae 

 •of this and the second, which put in an appearance 

 on the 15 th, I took from ivy on the Belstead Road 

 last autumn. On April 14th I took a Coccinella 22- 

 punctata. On the 15 th I took Nebria brevicollis, 

 Amara similata, A. famlllaris, Harpalus rttficornis, 

 Calathus mollis, Lorlcera pllicornis, Clavina fossor, 

 and a large, long Adephaga, which is new to me. 

 The 16th, although it was Sunday, was productive of 

 Amphydasis straiaria, a very fine specimen of which 

 I took from a lamp about 9 p.m. The following 

 morning, being stimulated by some stern entomo- 

 logical impulse, I turned out at 5 a.m., and found on 

 lamps, despite a biting east wind and rain, a fine 

 male Biston kirtaria, Tcznlocampa stabllis, and Core- 

 mia -unldentarla. Later the same day I took Acilius 

 sulcatus and Hyphydrus ovatus, together with two 

 new Hydradephaga in cop. On the 18th Anisopleryx 

 jzscularia was still on the lamps, and the 19th brought 

 out Smerlnthics iillee and Amara acuminata running 

 on a path, also Notonecta glauca and various Corixa: 

 from ponds. April 19th is a day that will have an 

 abiding spot in my heart as being the first on which 

 1 ever took Asphalia ridens, two specimens of which 

 I boxed from lamps, together with Tanlocampa incerta 

 .and T. stabllis (the very last), Hemerophlla abi-up- 

 taria, which seems fairly plentiful here, Anticlea 

 badiata and A. nigrofasclaria, Selenla bllunaria and 

 the last Hybernia marginarla. It was a wonderfully 

 warm night, the thermometer at 2 a.m. the following 



morning registering 48 F. At dusk I took Cidaria 

 suffumata, Clllx glaucata, and Coremla ferrugata. 

 This is a very early appearance of C. glaucata, 

 is it not? On the 20th Amphydasis betularia, 

 Phalera hucephala and Smerinthus tillce emerged. A 

 friend kindly gave me five fine Blaps mucronala from 

 his cellar. I walked over to Sproughton, a village 

 some three miles out, in the afternoon, and took the 

 first Ceononympha pamphllus and Strenia clathrata, 

 also Patroblus excavatus, Amara plebla, and Llophllo- 

 rus cadavarinus. On April 23rd I bred one of the 

 very- dark varieties of A. betularia, about which there 

 have lately been discussions in the pages of "The 

 Entomologist." The 24th was certainly one of the 

 most enjoyable, and probably one of the most pro- 

 ductive, days up to the present time this year. 

 Argyimls euphrosyne was flying about galore, making 

 a strikingly pretty picture, their fuscus and black 

 markings mingling beautifully with the bleached 

 blossoms of Viola canlna, which in places gave the 

 ground quite a light blue tinge. The insects were 

 very sluggish and easily taken, two pretty varieties 

 being obtained ; one, the usual one, in which the 

 whole of the upper and lower surface is much paler 

 than in the type, the other had all the black markings 

 run together in a most curious fashion. Besides A. 

 euphrosyne, of which I could have taken fifty or a 

 hundred, I took one g and three Eucklo'e carda- 

 mines, two Lycana argiolus, three Thecla rubi and 

 one Bupahts plniaria, and saw several others, together 

 with Selenla bllunaria, Larentla multlstrigaria and 

 C. dubitata on water, and Satyrus magera, Poly- 

 ommatus phlceas, G. rhamni, and Vanessa Io and V. 

 urtlccc on the wing. On the 26th I took Chrysomela 

 pollta. The 28th was productive of Euplexia luci- 

 para, which I consider another very early appear- 

 ance, taken in an upper room, doubtless attracted by 

 light. 



May, after " playing around " and spoiling our 

 drought record, which is a very good thing for the 

 farmers and gardeners, has now settled down to what 

 we may almost call our normal 1893 weather — hot 

 sun, high thermometer, high barometer, with a breeze 

 from the N.E. What if this weather continue, con- 

 trary to the predictions of the old German meteoro- 

 logist of Berlin, Dr. Rudolf Falb, who holds that 

 May is going to be an exceptionally dry month, but 

 then our " 1893 weather " is going to leave us ? See 

 what he says: "June less dry, and heavy rainfall 

 throughout July, August, and September. But, of all 

 the rainy months of the year, September will stand 

 out as the month that has beaten the record." A 

 cheerful prospect certainly. However, whether this 

 be so or not, time will show ; meanwhile, granting 

 always that this weather holds, will it be too much to 

 expect Lucina in the middle of May, Sibylla the end 

 of May, and the large fritillaiies in June ? I think 

 not. 



The Museum, Ipswich. 



