go 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[April 



Sugar. — 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 has been, in my opinion, not the counter-attraction of 

 honey dew — at which I have noticed very few moths — but the general 

 scarcity of Noctuae. 



Ivy-blossom. — On the 30th September I had my first night at ivy- 

 blossom in the West wood, 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 blossom fine, large, and plentiful, 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 

 uniform bad luck. 



Geometry have been on the whole very scarce, and " mothing " at 

 and after dusk uniformly unproductive. In the day-time at rest on tree 

 trunks, palings, etc., but especially the former, T. biundularia, and its 

 variety delamerensis, A . cambvicavia, A . blomeraria, L. lobulata, T. pimctiiiata, 

 A. sylvata, A. tilmata, etc., have been fairly common, whilst L. marginata, 

 T. vaviata, F. 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 the fine 

 weather, been enabled better to follow their work of destruction, and 

 lastly and by no means least, to the great drought which has prevailed, 

 these causes having also undoubtedly tended to minimize the number of 

 larvae, which have been unusually scarce. 



The following species of Noctuae, which are not usually double- 

 brooded with us, have this year been either double-brooded or partially 

 so : — L. pollens, A. psi, A.rumicis, N. plectd, N. C-nigrum, A. segetum, A. 

 suffusa, H. suasa, H. olevacea. 



REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



February 24th, 1894. — Colonel Charles Swinhoe, M.A., F.L.^., Vice-President, in 

 the chair. Professor August Forel, M.D., of the University of Zurich, was elected 

 an Honorary Fellow of the Society, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the 

 late Professor H. A. Hagen, M D. Mr. John Pratt, of the Cedars, New Barnet, and 



