16 
I sent one or two of the females to Mr. Cockayne, who had male 
zonaria out at the same time, and he was successful in getting a pairing 
between them. The result, however, was a failure, as no eggs were 
laid. Mr. Cockayne also sent me male zonaria, but I did not succeed 
in even getting them to pair, although I succeeded in pairing the $ 
and 5 hybrids. These also paired without any satisfactory result. 
The hybrid females commenced calling almost immediately they 
emerged, and after having paired they went through a performance of 
egg-laying, placing their ovipositors between the the lid of a box and 
the box, and remaining in that position for days at a time, but never 
laying a single egg. I think it may safely be assumed that the 
females were without eggs, for although when they were alive they 
were plump and appeared full of eggs, after they were set, the bodies 
dried up to about a quarter of their original size. 
Some few years ago there was an effort made on the part of a 
number of influential Entomologists to endeavour to check the over¬ 
collecting of certain species of Lepidoptera, with a view to prevent 
their possible extermination, and it was suggested that these species 
should he protected by common consent. Personally, I had very weak 
faith in the beneficial results of any concerted action in the matter, 
for my belief has always been that species disappear from certain 
places from natural or perhaps unnatural causes, rather than from 
any effort on the part of the collector to stock his duplicate boxes. 
To my mind the great cause of the disappearance of insect life near 
our large towns is from the contaminated atmosphere caused by 
smoke. We have only to take a ramble in country lanes and fields, a 
few miles from London, to notice how many of our commonest 
butterflies are conspicuous by their absence. Titkonus is one of the 
first to go. This species, as we all know, is one of the most common 
in the South of England, but it has quite gone for several miles 
round London, and being so common an insect no one could attribute 
its disappearance in certain places to over-collecting. Other striking- 
examples of the absence of common species round London are those 
of meydera, er/eria, and hyperanthus, all of which have more or less 
disappeared, besides a large number of others not so common, whose 
absence might lend colour to the theory of extermination by over¬ 
collecting ; but seeing that our common ones have gone with others 
which are held in greater request, it appears to be only reasonable to 
assume that a vitiated atmosphere has more to do with their absence 
than that they have been over-collected. On the other hand, it is 
remarkable how some of our local species maintain their numbers 
under very hard collecting. We may instance bondii , which still 
holds out in its old locality near Folkestone, where it has been col¬ 
lected probably for the last 40 or 50 years, while other things that 
have been scarcely touched have gone unaccountably. 
The failure to introduce butterflies into our parks, I imagine, was 
no surprise to most of us, and if I am right in assuming that so 
many of our common species have gone through the influence of 
smoke, it would have been indeed surprising if the hopes of seeing 
our parks beautified by the graceful flight of sibylla and paphia had 
been realised by introducing them there, with their necessary pabulum 
of honeysuckle and violet. 
In a few instances it would appear that some species thrive under 
