A SUMMER'S INSECT COLLECTING. 
By Richard A. Muttkowski. 
To entomologists in Milwaukee County the collecting season 
of 1908 will always be memorable ; not so much for the results 
of their labors, as for the various factors that worked to introduce 
a season replete with surprises. Foremost was the belated be- 
ginning. A winter full of severe storms, with frosts extending 
far into May, precipitated a remarkably short spring. Trees that 
had begun to bud during April, but had ceased to develop ni the 
following cold weather, now burst into full bloom. Fauna and 
flora, retarded so long, renewed their life. 
The results of this belated spring were immediately manifest : 
])otanists noted a general jumble in the early flower-months. May, 
June and July. ]\Iay flowers blossomed together with those of 
June and early July. Thus Early Meadow Rue flowered simul- 
taneously with Tall Meadow Rue. Goldenrod made its appear- 
ance several weeks earlier than usual. 
The early appearance of some food-plants may have hastened 
that of the insects. In support I may cite a difTerence of several 
weeks in the dates of attaining maturity among the Lepidoptera, 
Neuroptera, and Hymenoptera. Dr. Graenicher reports a sea- 
sonal disturbance among hees also, the ]\Iay and July types ap- 
pearing together at the end of June. Among Neuroptera this 
disturbance was less marked, though perceptible ; thus Chauhodes 
pcctinicornis and C. rastricornis appeared in late June. 
The Lepidoptera, however, show a number of striking accele- 
rations, among them that of a whole group, the Catocalinae, which 
appeared a full month earlier than in previous years. With these 
accelerations came other results, specially noticeable in the 
Cafocalse, such as increase or decrease of size, intensification of 
colors, widening or narrowing of bands. As instances of in- 
creased size Archips rosaceana and other l^ortricidx: may be men- 
tioned. Calpe canadensis (in part), Apatela brumosa, Catocala 
lucinda, show the opposite condition. Catocala cara, ilia, con- 
cnmbens, lucinda, cerogama, showed a general darkening of the 
fore wings and a greater brilliance of the colored bands of the 
hind wings. The latter effect was especially prominent in C. cava, 
while all captured specimens of C. cerogama show a distinct de- 
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