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YORKSHIRE LEPIDOPTERA IN 1900. 



WILLIAM HEWETT, 



Hon. Sec. Entomological Sec/ion of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. 



In presenting - my report on the more uncommon species of 

 Macro- Lepidoptera which have been obtained in Yorkshire 

 during - 1900, I wish to make special reference to the fact that 

 I have written to 59 entomologists for notes of species obtained, 

 and that of these 52 have replied, although 17 have not sent lists 

 owing to their having" nothing - of interest to communicate, whilst 

 7, I regret to say, have not taken the trouble to reply. 



The list comprises 221 species, made up as follows: — 

 Diurni, iS; Nocturni, 22; Drepanulidae, 2; Pseudo-Bombyces, 

 7; Geometrae, 84; and Noctuae, 88. 



Of the Diurni, the most interesting, either on account of 

 unusual abundance or rarity, are Colias edusa and its var. helice, 

 C. hyale, Vanessa atalanta, Thee la w-album, and Syrichthus alve- 

 olus; of the Nocturni, Acherontia atropos, Sphinx lignstri, the 

 specimen of Arciia lubricipeda var. radiqta from Withernsea, and 

 Liparis salicis; of the Geometrae, He?nithea thymiaria and Cidaria 

 dotata, and the almost total absence of any dark varieties of 

 Abraxas uhnata from Sledmere, where, in 1897, 1898, and 1899, 

 they were so common ; and amongst the Noctuae Cymatophora 

 ridens, C. fluctuosa, Acronycta alni, Mamestra abjecta, Xanthia 

 aurago, the three specimens of the var. unicolor of Cirrhaedia 

 xerampelina occurring out of 150 specimens bred by Mr. Porter, 

 of Hull, whereas Mr. Sumner, of Evering'ham, did not get one 

 example of this variety from some four hundred specimens 

 obtained at Everingham in 1897, Euperia fulvngo, Hecatera 

 serena, Stilbia anomala (which in one Yorkshire locality, not to 

 be mentioned here, now occurs in some numbers). 



Messrs. Boult and Porter, of Hull; Ash, of Skipwith ; Booth 

 and Beanland, of Saltaire, report the 1 season a bad one, sugar 

 of little use, and many usually common insects scarce'; still, 

 viewing it from the standpoint of the information which I have 

 been enabled to collect from the 42 lists received, it appears 

 to have been a better season than have many of the preceding 

 ones. 



Sugar has again failed to attract moths in anything like 

 the numbers that older entomologists remember, and we now 

 sigh in vain for the sugaring nights of long ago, when the ven 

 abundance, rather than rarity, made the task of selecting the 



iqoi March i. F 



