jflht jJomtg Naturalist: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 8} 



JUNE 18th, 1881 



Vol. 2. 



A BAD SEASON. 



SI >ME of our numerous correspon- 

 dents express the opinion that 

 1881 is going to be a good year for 

 .meets. Others express exactly the 

 opposite ; and think it is going to be 

 i very bad one. None of them favour 

 is with their reasons for these opinions 

 >r they would have been worth pun- 

 ishing. There are few subjects on 

 vhich we are so utterly ignorant as 

 he causes that lead to an abundance 

 »r scarcity of insects in any particular 

 'ear. Nay it is doubtful if we even 

 mow whether they are really abundant 

 »r scarce, or only apparently so. 

 ?hey will swarm one night, at sugar 

 I flowers everywhere, and the next 

 nth no change of wind, with the same 

 emperature, no difference of any sort 

 hat we can perceive, they will not 

 ^pear at all, or a single polyodwi or 

 mniuba on the sugar will be the ex- 

 eption that proves the rule. We 

 lave even noticed, and who has not, 

 hat on some particular night, when 

 ve were taking them freely suddenly 

 Ley would cease feeding, then wings 

 yould be raised as if they had been 



startled, and were ready for Jlight, 

 then one by one they would take wing, 

 and when we reach the next patch of 

 sugar, not a specimen remains. Some- 

 times for weeks together, sugar is 

 utterly unproductive, sometimes for a 

 whole season it remains so. With 

 1 lowers or light the same uncertainty 

 ! obtains, and no one knows the reason. 

 On the east coast, where the writer 

 resides, we know that it is useless to 

 sugar, visit flowers, or indeed to seek for 

 imagines at all, when we have an 

 Easterly or North Easterly wind. Yet 

 these would sometimes prevail for two 

 or three weeks together, during which 

 period insects must emerge, must feed, 

 must copulate. No doubt wet, cold, 

 chilly weather retards dcvelopement, 

 larva? will not feed so well, imagines 

 do not emerge so freely ; and probably 

 with many species, the season for their 

 appearance once over, they wait till 

 the next year instead of coming out 

 much after their unusual time. A late 

 season, or an early one, we can generally 

 understand, but of the causes that 

 produce a bad season or a good one we 

 have but hazy ideas. When the 

 ground is covered with snow for any 



