226 THE YOUNG NATURALIST. [November 



idle to doubt the possibility of such an insect as 'Galii being capable 

 of flying from France or Holland to any part of the British Isles. 



Now let us just look for a moment at the facts of the case. You 

 will seek in vain, I believe, for any record of Galii being taken in any 

 part of England in 1887, and very few indeed, if any, from the year 

 1870 until 1888 ; then on the Kentish coast we get some 22, and pos- 

 sibly more imagines captured, i.e., 18, St. Margaret's ; 1, Deal; 1, 

 Dartford ; 1, Folkestone ; 1, Gravesend ; and later on larvae widely 

 spread all over the county. We, too, have records of the moth being 

 captured : 1 in Middlesex, 1 in Buckinghamshire, 2 in Berkshire, 

 3 in Essex, 2 in Suffolk, Norfork, 2 in Yorkshire, 2 in Durham, larvae 

 plentiful in Cambridgeshire, 2 in Cheshire, 3 in Lancashire, with two 

 specimens in Scotland, and one in Ireland. So we see that in Kent 

 we get a much greater number of caught specimens than elsewhere, 

 and from here they spread out until Scotland and Ireland are reached 

 by a few, althongh from neither place do we hear of larvae being 

 found. 



The species was found either as larvae or moths in greater or 

 lesser numbers in most of the North- Eastern counties, whilst in some 

 of the Midland counties, as Cambridgeshire, the larvae were reported 

 in some numbers. Then on the North-West, in Cheshire and Lan- 

 cashire, a few imagines and many larvae are recorded. The insect 

 does not appear to have been recorded from the extreme South- West 

 counties or Wales. Now, Mr. Sharp seems to think it beyond 

 strange that a migratory insect should be able to attain so distant a 

 spot from the Continent as the Wallasey sand-hills. This to me is 

 by no means an insuperable task. No one presumes that this flight 

 is one straight and continuous effort, but would be reached by prob- 

 ably an instinctive daily progression in a certain direction. (Migration 

 of lepidoptera is too well authenticated to he doubted). Certain well-known 

 species have, by their migratory roving habit, become almost world- 

 wide in their range ; several of the large Hawk-moths being of this 

 kind. 



Just a few words on the Deal and Wallasey sand-hills being noted 

 localities of Galii. The reason to my mind is that the nature of the 

 ground not only produces abundance of their principal food, Galium 

 vemm, but collectors can much more readily find the larvce there, than in a 

 densely grassy place. The bulk of the larvae are perhaps traced up 

 by their black frass, easily seen on the brown sand, so that I quite 

 believe that a much greater relative number would be discovered on 

 sand-hills. The larvae might be quite as numerous in many places. 



