THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 211.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1860. [Price Id. 
AUTUMNAL LARVAS. 
We fear, from all we have hitherto 
seen and heard, that the crop of 
autumnal larvae is likely to be a very 
poor one. How, indeed, could it be 
otherwise? The rain in June and 
July must have drowned numbers of 
moths, and those which escaped death 
by drowning would be so dull and 
spiritless that the process of egg-laying 
would go on but slowly. If few eggs 
were laid in what, by courtesy we 
suppose, must be called the summer 
months , it is no wonder that larvae are 
now scarce. 
Of many larvae which are usually 
common at this season of the year 
we can see no trace. What will be- 
come of a species in such circum- 
stances? will it, like the Dodo, become 
extinct, or are there summer pupae 
remaining unhatched to carry over the 
brood till next year. 
We lately made a search for Litho- 
colletis Torminella in the larva state, 
but in vain; not the slightest symptom 
of a mine in the leaves of the Sorhus 
Torminalis : since then a friend has 
called our attention to the non-appear- 
ance of the larva of Lithocolletis Spi- 
nicolella, which we used to find on 
every sloe bush. Probably many other 
larvae are also non-existent at the 
present time. 
No doubt, to those who are begin- 
ning Entomology, such a state of 
things is rather disheartening; when 
Gonepteryx Rhamni and Vanessa Io 
both make their debut in our neigh- 
bourhood in October we feel most de- 
cidedly that “ the times are out of 
joint.” 
Chcerocampa Celerio, it is true, has 
been gladdening the eyes of some of 
our northern entomologists, but that 
only seems to make the state of affairs 
more perplexing. Celerio, like Nerii , 
has its home more especially in the 
South of Europe, but in hot summers 
it occasionally spreads northwards in 
some numbers, and it then reaches 
North Germany, the North of France, 
and our own Island. In 1846 Celerio 
attracted attention from its numbers in 
several parts of Northern Europe, but 
there seems no parallel between the 
weather in 1846 and in 1860; 1846 
was a hot, dry summer, and we cannot 
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