Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/58

1224 Batia Lambdella. June 19, Charlton sandpit, sweeping.

Phycita nebulella. July 18, Charlton sandpit, sweeping.

bistriga. June 26 — 30, one. Black Park.

abietella. June 26 — 30, Black Park, on firs.

Homaeosoma gemina. June 19, Charlton sandpit, in grass.

Araxes ahenella. June 15, Croydon, old railway, in grass.

Crambus pygmæus and cerusellus. June 15, Croydon; old railway, in grass. I be- lieve these to be but sexes of one species.

Crambus tristis. June 15, Croydon, old railway, in grass.

Adactylus Bennettii. July 3 — 10, two, among grass on the sea-wall, St. Osyth's, Essex, taken at dusk.

Pterophorus microdactylus. June 19, Charlton sandpit, sweeping.

The above, with those previously published (Zool. 1089) are my best captures this year. I could have added many others, but thought it better not to occupy space that may be better employed, and have therefore noted only the rarer species captured. This season has not been very productive of specimens, but many of the rarer species have been taken by different persons, particularly in the summer months. In the spring there was a great scarcity, caused partly by the continued cold weather, and partly by the destruction of larvae by birds and drought the preceding summer. The autumn moths too, have been unusually scarce, caused, I have little doubt, by the cold, wet summer, having caused great quantities of caterpillars to perish. I was at Nor- bury Park, from the 25th to the 28th instant, and did not see one moth, where in former years I have seen fifty, and a collector residing near that place told me it has been the same throughout the autumn.—J.W. Douglas; 6, Grenville Terrace, Kent Road, October 30th, 1845.

Proposed mode of recording the dates of the appearance of Lepidopterous Insects.—It had frequently occurred to me that the seasons for the appearance of insect in the imago state are loosely given in books on Entomology, owing to the circumstance that there was no ready method known of putting such observations on record. I accord- ingly set myself to work to devise a plan which might supply this desideratum. My plan being submitted to Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., met with his approval, and he in the most spirited manner had a great quantity of sheets beautifully lithographed in the required form for the use of naturalists at his own expense. I proceed to give you a description of the scheme. Each sheet is divided into fourteen columns by strong perpendicular lines ; the extreme one on the left to contain the names of the insects, that on the right for casual observations, and the twelve intermediate ones are each devoted to one of the calendar months beginning with January. Every one of these is again subdivided by faint lines into three minor columns appropriated to the average period of ten days ; from right to left are ruled strong lines bounding the spaces de- voted to the respective species, and these divisions are again divided by faint lines into six lesser spaces. To make use of these sheets it is necessary after having written the specific names of that class of insects intended to be studied in the first column ; to fix upon a scale of colours to represent the various localities in which the respective species are found. The one I framed for my own use in recording the seasons of Lepidopterous insects is the following:—