XXXV 



frosts. Winds and gales have also an injurious effect upon insect life, 

 such as the heavy gale of April 29, 1882 which was the strongest since 

 1830. In that storm the wind was greatly impregnated with salt, 

 which irretrievably injured vegetation of all kinds, and even at 

 Chichester, 9 miles from the sea all the windows of the houses were 

 covered with salt spray. The year 1867 had a very cold and frosty 

 May ; there was a very short period between the latest spring, and 

 the earliest autumn frost ; the latest spring frost being on 29th May 

 and the earliest frost in autumn being on the 31st August. It is 

 difficult to say what influences the abundance of particular species in 

 certain years, but it appears evident that fine sunny summers are 

 most productive of butterfly life, such as those of 1870 and 1887 for 

 the Blues, and a hot one as 1868 for Colias hyale ; 1877, the great year 

 for Colias edusa had a remarkably fine September. A long continuance 

 of easterly winds in the late summer and autumn of 1872 seems to 

 bring to our shores such rarities of ordinary years, as Antiopa, 

 Lathonia, and Daplidice. On the other hand, weather apparently has 

 very little effect on Cardui or Janiva. However it is very evident that 

 the same season that is favourable for Antiopa, is likewise so for 

 Lathonia and Daplidice, whilst Cardui is generally accompanied by 

 Plusia gamma, and Edusa by Scopula fervugalis. 



Another subject worth considering is the disappearance, or increas- 

 ing scarcity of certain species. Sometimes we have a cold summer 

 with rarely a glimpse of sun, and frequent chilly rains (preceded or 

 followed by a severe winter). In such a season butterflies are seldom 

 seen on the wing, and their chances of pairing and depositing their 

 eggs are few. Diurnal species become torpid on a dull day, and a 

 continuance of dull days is fatal to them, and were it not for a wonder- 

 ful amount of recuperative power, and a few favourable seasons 

 coming together, we should have still fewer butterflies than we have 

 at the present time. But cold weather at the time that the perfect 

 insects should appear is not the only thing they suffer from. Open 

 winters, and mild weather in February and March, tempt hybernat- 

 ing caterpillars from their winter retreat, and after they have begun to 

 feed again, they are much less able to resist the frosts we sometimes 

 get afterwards in the months of April and May, such as we had in 

 1867, an d 1885, in which latter year, snow fell on the 16th of May. 

 The salt storms also of April 29th, 1882 had a most disastrous effect 

 on the insect life of that year, many of the spring caterpillars being 



