26 
then the numbers at our meetings compare very favourably with the 
year before, and I think we must admit that the experiment has been a 
success. Another addition to our former routine has been the evening 
devoted to the exchange of duplicates. The suggestion originated 
with one of our Vice-Presidents, Mr. J. F. Hanbury, and although it was 
found incompatible to apply the same methods as those suggested, 
nevertheless, in a more or less haphazard manner, duplicates were 
exchanged and distributed, I think i may say, to the entire satisfaction 
of all present, and doubtless the exchange evening will be a feature 
with us in the future. 
It is generally admitted that the object of a Society like ours is not 
only for the advancement of entomological science in the case of the 
scientific entomologist, but also for the encouragement of entomology 
among those less advanced, and to the latter class my remarks must 
be chiefly directed ; and under cover of that apology I trust that what 
repetition I have indulged in will be forgiven. 
The year we have just passed through has certainly not been an 
eventful one from a collector’s point of view, and that, perhaps, is not 
surprising, when we consider that it has been the wettest summer for 
something like 60 years. Within the recollection of not very old 
entomologists, the years 1888 and 1879 were both remembered as 
particularly wet seasons, and 1879 a remarkably bad entomological 
season ; but although 1888 was almost as wet, in some ways it was a 
better year for the collector. In July of that year there was a very 
considerable immigration of Celerio (/alii. I remember seeing a long 
series that were taken on the wing by the late Mr. J. Trimmer Williams, 
and in the autumn of the same year the larvte were, to my knowledge, 
most abundant on the east and south coasts, from Aldeburgh to Deal. 
I heard of a collector at Deal who took as many as 200 larvae, and a 
friend of mine took a large number at Aldeburgh. It might almost 
seem that unusually wet seasons were conducive to the migration of 
certain insects, as in the same year (1888) there were large numbers 
of Pyrameis cardui to be seen during September. Also, in the wet 
season of 1879, there was a remarkable immigration of P. cardui in 
the month of June, and in the present year there has been a most 
striking immigration of the same insect. In this case they appeared 
to arrive about September 19th in our south-eastern counties, 
particularly at Dovercourt, Maldon (in Essex), and also at Mucking. 
Until that time I think I am right in saying that next to none had 
been seen, and as all the specimens presented a somewhat worn 
appearance, the safe conclusion is that they had migrated. On 
Saturday, September 26th, about a week after the first ones had been 
seen, it was in the neighbourhood of Barking (in Essex), and in the 
recreation grounds of that place there were frequent patches of Sedum 
spectabile in full bloom. On two of these patches of flowers I counted 
as many as seven P. cardui on each patch, the others all having their 
visitors in fewer numbers. With the arrival of P. cardui there were a 
great number of Pluda gamma, with all the appearance of having 
arrived simultaneously. With such an abnormally wet season, we 
might well have expected an unusual number of aberrations in 
lepidoptera, but as far as my observations have extended, nothing out 
of the way has been noticed. 
Doubtless most of us know that Mr. Bateson has been accumulating 
