DIURNAL LEPIDOPTERA OF ST. ANDREWS. 5 



taken most of the insects mentioned below. On the N.W. side of the town are 

 the links, which run north for about ten miles, till they reach the mouth of the 

 river Eden. Here I have taken many insects. In the month of July this year 

 the beautiful blue Polyommatus Alexis was particularly abundant, and here also, 

 on the 18th of the same month, I saw a specimen of Macroylossa stellatarum. 

 The only museum of Natural History here is that in the United College build- 

 ings, the specimens in which, however, are fast going to decay from want of 

 attention. A few years ago a course of lectures on Natural History was de- 

 livered in the University, but, owing to the small number of students that 

 attended, I am sorry to say it was given up. 



Pontia brassicae Hipparchia megsera 



rapae — — — — — janira 



napi hyperanthus 



Vanessa urticae Lycaena phlaeas 



io Polyommatus alexia 



i atalanta 



Pontia brassicce. — This Butterfly, although common here, is by no means so 

 plentiful as the two following, owing, I suppose, to the immense number of cater- 

 pillars which are destroyed by the larvae of a small Ichneumon. Of twelve 

 caterpillars which I fed this year only one changed into a chrysalis ; all the 

 others were destroyed by these larvae, which, when full grown, make their way 

 through the body of the caterpillar, and spin for themselves beautiful little yellow 

 cocoons. The caterpillar above mentioned is the only one that changed into a 

 chrysalis after having fastened the band for the suspension of the future pupa, 

 fell to the bottom of the box, and there changed itself into a chrysalis. The last 

 time I saw this Butterfly this season was on the 18th of October. 



Pontia rapce and P. napi, with varieties of both, common. 



Vanessa urticce. — I saw it for the first time this year on the 2nd of May ; last 

 year I noticed a single specimen as early as the 18th of March, another on the 

 4th of April, and several on the 15th of April, after which time it was abundant ; 

 this year it was not seen in any abundance till the 2nd week of May. The last 

 specimen I saw this year was on the 1 9th of October ; last year I observed one 

 as late as the middle of December. 



Vanessa io. — On the 3rd of October, which was a dull damp day, when out in 

 the garden with a spade in my hand, digging up a weed from a bed of China 

 Asters then in flower, I was so fortunate as to disturb what I thought to be a 

 specimen of V. urticce, which flew off a short distance, and alighted on the 

 ground. But what was my surprise and delight when on seizing it by the tho- 

 rax with my fore-finger and thumb — which caused its wings to open a little — I 

 found it was what our earliest British entomologists named " omnium regina" 

 Vanessa Io. It has been stated that this beautiful insect — of which my speci- 



