THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 204.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1860 [Price Id. 
THE COLD SUMMEE. 
After two unusually hot summers, 
which led to the capture of numerous 
South-European insects on our coast, 
we have this year been favoured with 
a season of a totally different kind ; 
and what has been the result.? A 
great dearth of insects of all kinds, 
even of wasps and house-flies. We 
know that insects are not generally 
very plentiful during the winter, and 
consequently in a summer which simu- 
lates winter, only that it is hardly as 
sunny, what could have been expected 
but a great scarcity of insects? 
The mass of insects which should 
have appeared in the year 1860 will 
no doubt now be quiescent in the egg, 
larva or pupa states, to gladden our 
eyes in the summers of 1861 or 1862. 
The captures which should have been 
made are not lost altogether, — they 
are only delayed, — there is some con- 
solation in that! 
At the last Meeting of the Ento- 
mological Society of London, Mr. West- 
wood read a paper by Dr. Yerloren, of 
Utrecht, on the periods of appearance 
of Sphinx Liguslri in the perfect stale. 
A great number of observations had 
been made on these insects by Dr. Ver- 
loren during a series of years, and the 
details, when collected and condensed 
into a statistical form, gave some very 
curious results. For instance, it was 
found that a large per-centage of this 
insect passed two winters in the pupa 
state, and of those thus endowed with 
unusual longevity about two-thirds were 
females. Further, it appeared that, in 
some years, hardly any individuals took 
the two years to come to perfection, 
and, as far as the table went, this 
appeared to be the case in the alternate 
years. 
That Eriogaster Laneslris remained 
in the pupa state one or more years 
has long been a well-known fact, and 
that occasionally Sphinx Ligustri was 
liable to the same arbitrary prolonga- 
tion of life has been known to most 
of those who have bred the insect on 
an exten.sive scale ; but within the last 
ten years we have known breeders of 
considerable experience express their 
surprise that a Evpithecia should pass 
two winters in the pupa state. 
The remarks of Professor Yerloren, 
the observations of others which have 
z 
