6 
aionally spread over most of England, it appeared 
that this abnormal amount of presence in one year 
was by no means a reason to expect it in the year 
following. Meteorological influences had a powerful 
direct effect. With regard to the insect attacks of 
the last few years, the Colias edusa, a rare butterfly 
of such bright tint as to resemble a brilliant yellow 
or orange coloured flower, would be remembered as 
flitting about this neighbourhood in the summer of 
1877. This was the chief insect appearance of that 
year, and the attack was well established, for the 
larvse were to be seen feeding on clover, and a 
second brood was developed. In the following year 
(1878) a general absence of the Colias was observed. 
It was not known what circumstances brought the 
large numbers, neither the cause of their non-con¬ 
tinuance, but the mild moist winter of 1877-8 
might have had some influence in clearing them, as 
the small partially insectivorous birds were of more 
unmixed service to us in such seasons than at other 
times. A very different state of things existed 
when the larvse were protected by the ground being 
frozen hard around them. The year 1878 was not 
remarkable for any great insect attack, but 1879 
was distinguished by what rarely happened in this 
island—a visitation from a vast swarm of lepidoptera, 
composed at most of the successive points noted in 
its advance of the Plusia gamma, or silver moth, 
and the Vanessa cardui, or painted lady butterfly, 
which swept over the continent of Europe from the 
north of Africa, and were observed on our southern 
coasts on the 10th of June. Miss Ormerod continued: 
From the notes placed in my hands then by the 
well-known entomologist, Mr. Edward Fitch, it 
appears that the swarm started from the north east 
of Africa, reached Algiers from about the 15th to 
the 20th of April, from thence crossed to Valencia 
and spread over Spain ; it was also present in the 
Balearic Isles from the 28th of April to the 3rd of 
May, and crossed the Eastern Pyrenees on the 26th 
and 27th of the same month. It next appeared in 
the south-east of France, Switzerland, and Northern 
Italy, and on the morning of the 5th of June 
thousands of living specimens were found upon the 
snow at the Hospice of St. Gothard, and it was 
distributed over Germany and Austria at dates 
noted as from the 7th to the 16th of June. 
Another column crossed the Mediterranean to 
Sicily, and spread noithwards over Italy in June. 
The more westerly end of the migratory swarm 
reached Strasburg from the 3rd to the 9th of June, 
and the first appearance on our own coasts was 
