The YOtfHG HAT8BAMST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Part 95. NOVEMBER, 1887. Vol. 8. 



THE LEPIDOPTERA OF A GARDEN. 



By JOSEPH ANDERSON, Jun. 

 President of the Chichester Natural History Society. 



IT HE idea, I think, is entertained by many collectors of lepidoptera, that in 

 order to obtain a " good haul," it is necessary to go far afield for their 

 insect hunting. Now, inasmuch as all the species enumerated in the follow- 

 ing notes, were taken within the circumscribed area of a circle of but few 

 yards dimensions, surrounding my residence, I shall be able to show that this 

 is by no means the case ; and that persons, whose amount of leisure is limited, 

 would be able in any suitable locality to prosecute the study, and in time get 

 together a very fair collection. 



Firstly then, I will call attention to the Diurnal Lepidoptera, which visited 

 our garden. The beautiful Colias edusa (the Clouded Yellow) was one of 

 these. One must not, however, expect to meet with this insect every season, 

 as its appearance is capricious and uncertain. A.D. 1877 will be long mem- 

 orable as the Colias edusa year. Probably never before had this favourite 

 butterfly swarmed to such an extent in this country, turning up as it did in 

 localities where it had never previously been observed. Now for nearly ten 

 years, only stragglers here and there have been noticed, upsetting the septen- 

 nial theory, to which some lepidopterists have attached some importance. 

 The typical form was, in 1877, accompanied by the pretty pale variety of the 

 female, to which Haworth gave the name of Helice. Of these, my brother 

 and I then captured 42 fine examples, some of them being taken even in the 

 garden. They varied much in colour, from rich cream and primrose to a 

 dingy white, the marginal spots also presenting great dissimilarity in size, in 

 one or two specimens being nearly obliterated. 



I need hardly say that the three species of Pieris — brassicce, rapes, and 

 napi—weve to be seen disporting themselves, both on sunny and dull days in 



