28 
I. 
NOTES ON COLLECTING (LEPIDOPTERA) IN 
NORFOLK, 1878. 
Ry E. D. Wheeler, M:A., Hon. Sec. 
Read 2 gth April, 1879 . 
The past year seems to have been througliout the eoiintry a 
singularly unproductive one. Here and there, e.g., in Perthshire, the 
Isle of Man, and at Wicken Fen some rare species have appeared 
in numbers quite up to the average; but speaking generally, 
and more especially in reference to the South of England, the 
commonest insects have been comparatively scarce, and good 
things as a rule conspicuous by their absence. 
In the New Forest j)articularly — that great working ground 
of Metropolitan lepidopterists — absolutely nothing seems to have 
been done ; while a Norfolk gentleman, an occasional contributor 
to this Society, who visited the Scilly Isles last summer, brought 
back dismal accounts of the absence of Lepidoptera — a sad contrast 
to 1877, when the same spot produced a large number of highly 
interesting species. 
Compared with this gloomy state of things elsewhere, Norfolk 
collectors have been favoured, and I have to record the occurrence 
in unusual numbers of two species, one almost, the other entirely, 
confined to our Norfolk Fens ; the capture of a third extreme 
rarity, and of three species new to our county list, one of which, 
however, must, I suppose, be considered as an importation. Had 
we a number of lepidopterists at all commensurate with either the 
wealth of our insect fauna, or the strength of our Society in 
other branches of Natural History, these records might doubtless 
be increased manifold ; as it is, they are drawn almost entirely 
from notes of my own work and tliat of two personal friends. 
