January, 1889.] 



THE 



YOtfNG HATBBAMST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Volume X. 1889. 



Notable Lepidoptera in 1888. 



By JOHN E. ROBSON. 



THE past year has been a very abnormal one. A late spring, a wet 

 summer, an early winter. In most of places Lepidoptera have 

 been scarce^ even when the weather permitted collecting to be 

 attempted. Yet the year has been a notable one in many respects, 

 and I will endeavour briefly to call attention to some of the more 

 interesting facts in connection with the larger Lepidoptera. 



The first thing to mention is something that did not occur. In 

 the autumn of 1887 the three " common whites," Pieris hrassica?, rapce, 

 and napi, were unusually numerous. It was natural to expect that 

 the spring brood of 1888 would also have been an abundant one, but 

 none of the species were specially numerous. It is certainly curious, 

 and needing explanation, that the occurrence of a " swarm" of any 

 species is rarely or never followed by an abnormal abundance in the 

 succeeding emergence. A large number of Vanessa cardui were on the 

 wing in the early part of last year, but I never heard of it in the 

 autumn, and was quite unable to find any larvae, even where I had 

 seen the imagines in profusion. Another species, Anthrocaris card-amines, 

 was also very abundant on the wing before the rainy season. It is 

 not a species that has previously been noticed for appearing in any 

 extraordinary numbers, and it will be interesting to know the result 

 this season. I will be glad if readers will communicate on the subject 

 when it appears in the coming spring. 



Colias Edusa has been recorded from a very few places. Colias 

 HyaU not all. My own opinion of these butterflies is that were it not for 



