15 
Possibly the most striking feature of the season of 1906, and the 
one that will be best remembered, has been the extraordinary 
abundance of Exigua. This hitherto rare insect has been long looked 
upon as one of our greatest prizes, and until this year it was very 
poorly represented in most of our cabinets. I think it is safe to say 
that never before in the history of British Entomology has the species 
appeared in such abundance. The records come chiefly from the 
South Coast, and more particularly from the Isle of Wight and South 
Western Counties. It has, however, made considerable inroads 
inland, as it has been taken somewhat freely by our friend Mr. Burrows 
at Mucking, and a single specimen was taken at Pinner by Mr. Tautz. 
There are also records from Kingston-on-Thames, and from Navestock 
near Romford. Newman gives a description of the larva which was 
successfully reared from the egg in the year 1859, and from that time 
until this season, as far as I know, no one had been successful in 
rearing the insect. Livornica also has been unusually numerous this 
season, and as this is the second year of its appearance, it seems as if 
it may have come to stay. Sphinx pinastri is again recorded from the 
neighbourhood of Woodbridge, where it has been taken on and off for 
the last 30 years. This species undoubtedly has a hold in the County 
of Suffolk, whether originally planted there or not, and it cannot be 
compared to most of our other rarities, whose uncertain appearances 
would point to their migratory habits, and with a favourable season or 
two, they are able to establish themselves for a time. 
My own experience of field work during the season has been very 
restricted owing to unavoidable causes, but during the early part of 
the summer, on the few times that I went collecting, I was usually 
rewarded with a goodly number of captures. The most interesting 
additions I have made to my cabinet are specimens of hybrid 
lapponaria $ and zonaria £ . Last year I mentioned that I had 
been so far successful in getting the hybrids into pupje, and this 
spring I was rewarded with the imagines. These commenced to 
appear considerably earlier than either lapponaria or zonaria occur, 
even when bred in confinement. The first three appeared on January 
9th, followed by four on the 14th, continuing at short intervals to the 
end of the month. Then there was a rest until February 11th, 
followed by others on the 14th, 20th, 25th, and 27th. Up to this date 
I had bred nothing but females, 24 in all, and I began to despair of 
ever seeing a male ; but on March 2nd two males appeared, followed 
by others, until March 17th. These last were all males, twelve in all, 
so that not a single male put in an appearance until all the females 
had emerged. I believe this is a characteristic with lapponaria, as I 
have invariably bred the females first and the males after, although I 
must confess that my acquaintance with the species is not of very old 
standing. As most of us know, it usually happens that the males of 
a species put in an appearance first, and the females afterwards. I 
have noticed this to be most pronounced in breeding hispidaria, which 
is not such a great way removed from lapponaria. The hybrids have 
more the appearance of zonaria than of lapponaria, being very much 
like a dark form of zonaria, but the females are very intermediate 
between the two, as they lose the red stripe down the body which 
lapponaria has, and the rings of zonaria are very much less 
conspicuous, although not entirely absent, and the body generally, is 
nearly as dark as lapponaria. 
