2 
NOTES OF OBSERVATIONS 
months was respectively 4, 6, and 6; and the hours of sunshine in 
each month were 46, 79, and 166. 
The minimum of January is thus seen to be somewhat higher than 
at Kingsnorth, Kent, where Mr. Hart mentions his thermometer as 
registering several times below 10°, and higher also than at my own 
station, 68 feet above sea-level near Islewortli, where the min. reading 
for the month was 11°; here the days of rainfall in the whole period 
noticed were more numerous than at Lockerbie, occurring in the 
above-mentioned months, near Islewortli, respectively on 7, 20, and 
on 4 days. The temporary changes in the state of the weather were in 
some cases highly beneficial in clearing away insect attack; in a few 
instances they were favourable to increase. From various localities 
we have notes of the rains clearing the Turnip “Fly,” and also the 
beetle, Gastrojjhysa polygoni, when injuring the Mangold crops in 
Shropshire: the benefit was both from washing down the insects and 
invigorating the plant-growth. Cabbage Butterflies, which appeared 
in great numbers on the coast of North Wales, near Llandudno, on 
the 26th of March, are noted from several places during the summer 
as occurring with, or immediately following, a duration of dry 
weather. 
The Clouded Yellow Butterfly, Colias Edusa , and the Silver 
Y Moth, PLusia Gamma, which appeared respectively in such vast 
numbers in 1877 and in 1879, were in the first case scarcely repre¬ 
sented ; in the second but little noticed. The injurious beetles made 
no great appearance. Amongst injurious Hymenoptera the Gooseberry 
Sawfly, as usual, appeared almost in every locality where the simple 
means of prevention were not adopted of removing the surface-soil 
during the winter from under bushes which had been infested in the 
previous season. Wasps also have been an almost universal annoy¬ 
ance, reaching its height apparently near Dumfries, and the not 
distant locality of Glenarm, Antrim, in each of which places both 
ground and tree nests abounded to an extent that in the first made 
walking in the copses a matter of some risk from the number of nests 
suspended from the boughs, and in the second locality prevented the 
meadows being properly worked. Details of the species and numbers 
of nests observed are given, which space does not allow me here to 
insert. Other kinds of Hymenoptera, such as Gall Flies, and insects 
generally allied to the Wasps and Bees, do not appear to have been 
largely represented, unless by Humble Bees ( Bombi ) in some 
localities. 
On the whole the weather appears to have been favourable to 
vegetation, and coincidently with this the amount of insect injury, 
with the exceptions noted, has been moderate. 
I have to express great obligation to the many contributors who 
