Rotes from Japan. — I have now returned overland to Yokohama from Awomori, 
500 miles, having got a new Chlcenius allied to Noguchii, a Bembidium near 
articulatum, and a single Miscodera, very nice, but not quite perfect. I have now 
done north Japan (getting 680 species new to me), and intend to travel south before 
January, and work north to the Biwa Lake as spring and summer advance. This 
year I started northward in the beginning of June, and the Longicornia came out in 
full burst to welcome me until I reached the most northern point, 650 miles from 
Yokohama, in mid August. I have got all my collection here safe and am packing 
it for England, for it is a veritable white elephant to me now. The bears troubled 
me much in the north, for they frightened the collectors, being very numerous this 
autumn, and came down to the houses for grapes, as food in the hills became scarce. 
I have only one J of Cardbus Gehini, the finest here, something between Damaster 
and C. auratus. Euchirus and I) icranocephalus do not turn up. — George Lewis, 
Yokohama : November 3rd, 1880. 
Observations on Vanessa in Japan. — In July and August, I observed in South 
Yezo specimens of Pieris cratcegi, Vanessa Antiopa , lo, cardui, and urticce ; and it 
may interest English entomologists to hear of these insects in Japan. They are all 
hardy species, but if they flourish even intermittently between this and western 
Europe, they must at times be liable to many changes of climate and conditions of life, 
and the larvae must, I think, feed on different species of allied plants. V. Io occurs in 
Japan as far south as Nambu, but both there and in Yezo there is a nettle which is 
very irritating to the hand when touched, and if this plant grew further south I 
should expect to find Io with it. But in looking at Antiopa, it may be said its food- 
plant is found down to the south of the Archipelago, yet it does not pass thither, so 
evidently the climate or some other cause checks it. I have seen Antiopa twice in 
England, the last time when a few years since (1872) so many captures were 
recorded in the Ent. Mo. Mag., and I think these periodical appearances merely 
exhibit the ordinary method in which many Lepidoptera distribute themselves 
when in superabundance in one locality ; and, were there no special cause prevent- 
ing it, Antiopa would establish itself permanently in England : each one of these 
flights is an effort to do so. Butterflies fly long distances, and merely crossing the 
channel from France or Germany is easily accomplished by any butterfly of Vanessa- 
power, and their flight is after all often mere resting on the wind. I have seen 
specimens of Papilio at sea, an hour before land was visible, in fine condition and so 
vigorous that when approached for capture they have fluttered away and gone off 
oceanwards, where of course they are finally lost. Now in Japan I have found 
species occupying a limited area, from there being other animals at hand ready to 
prey on them. An instance of this is noticeable here, for there is a total absence 
of the Magpie, which at Shanghai and other places in China is so abundant 
that any visitor of a few days must notice it, as it is there not in dozens but 
hundreds, forming quite a feature in the landscape. The cause of their absence 
here is, I think, the large crow ( Corvus japonicusj which would destroy their eggs or 
devour their young, for the latter species plunders everywhere. A short time since 
a crow took a candle out of the lantern of my Jinrikisha, while I was eating my 
lunch within a yard of it, and a friend of mine in Osaka has had quail stolen from 
the frying pan by the same bird. Perhaps the cause of Antiopa not establishing 
