THE NATURALIST ABROAD. 69 



i upon them with pleasure, if not respect. Spotted and marked in a variety of 

 ways, black on a red ground, red on a black, black on yellow, with from two 

 to almost countless spots, or marked as with Egyptian hieroglyphics in every 

 form and shape, they are elegant and pleasing. Stephens has enumerated 

 thirty species as natives of Britain, and probably careful research might detect 

 many more. 



I must here just allude to another enemy of the Aphides, which shows them no 

 mercy, though it acts in a somewhat different way from the Ladybird. This 

 is a minute Ichneumon, whose operations are well deserving attention, and I have 

 several times observed it. Sometime ago, putting some Rose-leaves covered with 

 Aphides under a glass, I found I had enclosed a small Ichneumon, whose 

 manoeuvres I therefore inspected. He felt about with his antennae, and the 

 Aphides manifested much alarm at his presence by the movements of their 

 bodies ; at length, approaching one of them, it suddenly bent its abdomen between 

 its legs, and immediately protruding its ovipositor, left an egg glued to the body 

 of the insect ; thus it did with several, and it was very curious to observe the 

 proceeding. This egg produces a little white grub, which devours the body of 

 the insect to which it is attached, and then seizes upon the Aphides around it, till 

 it has arrived at its full growth. 



But we must resume our progress, and lo ! the Vanessa C. album, the Butter- 

 fly of the ground, starts before us, flying where that long streak of rosy purple, 

 on the brow of the limestone height, points out the habitat of the beautiful 

 Onobryckis sativa ; and, scattered amid the rocky hollows by the side of the 

 wood, the bright Pyramidal Orchis (0. pyramidalis), both purple and white, 

 blooms luxuriantly, while the delicate and sprightly Marbled Butterfly (Hip- 

 parchia Galatkea) plays about the clustered flowers. Here, for the present, we 

 rest upon the mossy turf, fanned by the breeze of the hill, while rocks feathered 

 with wood, solitary glens, groves, heaths, and woodlands, rise in view, in long 

 succession, terminated in the far distance by the dark, solemn, Cambrian 

 mountains. 



PAPILIO PODALIRIUS. 

 In the last number of the Naturalist, I perceive Mr. Allis has recorded 

 some observations on the above insect. In a conversation with me a short time 

 ago, the point chiefly dwelt upon by Mr. A. was the fact, of the person who sold 

 him the specimens having professed herself, at first, unable to tell where they were 

 captured. She did not then expect to see him again ; but, in the interval before 

 the second interview, made the inquiry, the result of which Mr. Allis has stated. 



