THE YOUNG 



near Coventry, in Warwickshire. The 

 Death's Head seems to have been unusually 

 plentiful this year— W. Harcourt Bath, 

 Birmingham, 17th November, 1882. 



AcHERONTiA Atropos. — On the 21st Sep- 

 tember I had a fine specimen brought me 

 alive by a sailor who captured it on board 

 a ship in the harbour. He was afraid it 

 would hite him, especially when it began to 

 utter its cry. On the 9th October I had 

 another brought me dead, having been kept 

 some time and fed (?) on cabbage leaves, as I 

 am informed, consequently not at all a good 

 specimen, and much smaller than the 

 previous-mentioned insect. — F. Kerry, 

 Harwich. 



A. Atropos and S. Convolvuli at 

 Grantham. — I had a beautiful specimen 

 of A. Atropos brought to me on October 

 2nd. It flew into a bedroom of which the 

 window had been left open for some days. 

 When the housemaid went into the room to 

 dust she saw the specimen setded on a 

 pincushion. She was rather afraid of it 

 and called the valet upstairs to see it. He 

 put it into a jug and tied some gauze over 

 the top. In this jug it remained four days 

 before it died. When brought to me it was 

 not, strange to say, in the least degree 

 damaged. Convolvuli was also found in 

 Grantham in September. — Arthur N. 

 Treadgold, Hertford College, Oxford. 



Collecting in Northumberland. — I 

 spent July this year at Bamborough on 

 the coast. The weather was very un- 

 settled and I did not get much. I 

 found 5. SemeU plentiful, flying amongst 

 the rocks on which the castle is built ; also 

 B, perla on the lichen-covered walls. I took 

 a few Sciophula octomaculana (varieties; at 

 rest on the rocks. The larvae of E. jacohcea 

 swarmed all along the coast. The Common 

 Blue, C. pamphihis, and 5, Janira were also 

 very plentiful. I met with two D. conspersa 

 at rest on the rocks : the larvas must feed 

 on the seed pods of SiUne inflata, which 



NATURALIST 23 



grows plentifully on the rocks. I also got 

 hold of two or three E. Hneolata, a rather 

 local species. On the first day we arrived 

 I took a female C. plantaginis, but never met 

 with another. One G. obscurata was found 

 at rest on the rocks on which the castle is 

 built, also one E. subumhmta. On the rag- 

 wort flowers I met with E, centauveata and 

 GraphoUtha nigromaculana. N. mundana was 

 plentiful, but H. nimhellcB scarce. I also 

 visited the moors in the neighbourhood of 

 Belford, but met with poor success. E. 

 nanata was flying in great profusion, and 

 many common Tinea. We had a pleasure 

 party to the Farne Islands. A most lovely 

 day, a smooth sea, and bright sunshine. I 

 searched the islands for insects, but found 

 nothing but millepedes and earwigs. One 

 of the party discovered a specimen of Sco- 

 paria lineolea on my hat, but whether it was 

 a native, or had been imported by me, I 

 cannot say. There are many acres on one 

 island of Silene inflata, but I did not find any 

 of the seed pods to be eaten by larvae. It 

 is a grand sight to the number of sea birds, 

 eggs, and young birds lying about all over. 

 — W. Maling, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



NOTE ON THE PAST SEASON. 



By J. W. Carter. 



The greater proportion of the evidence 

 given by British Entomologists, in the 

 various Magazines, tends to show that 

 Lepidopterous insects have been extremely 

 scarce. Our experience in this neighbour- 

 hood supports the evidence ; it is without 

 doubt the worst season we ever experienced. 



In June, iBSi, the larvae of P. pilosaria 

 were very abundant, they, with countless 

 thousands of HyhernidcB larvae defoliated 

 every tree in the vicinity of Shipley Glen, 

 and yet, in early spring comparatively few 

 imagines of the former were seen. 



In former years A . ulmata was generally 

 abundant in Hawksworth wood, but this 



