igi/- yoies. 121 



ZOOLOGY. 



Habits of Vanessa io in Co. Doneg:al. 



ilie Peacock Butterfly (Vanessa Io), here formerly all but unknown 

 has within recent years become, not indeed common, but much less rare. 

 A few now haunting the lawn and garden, and remaining unmolested, 

 are getting to be quite familiar. It is interesting to observe their marked 

 preference for the flowers of the Primrose, which for most species of 

 l.epidoptera appear to have little attraction ; the only others of which 

 1 remember to have seen visiting them having been the Humming-bird 

 and the Bee Hawk-Moths. After close observation of its behaviour 

 whilst feeding, one is inclined to regard the Peacock Butterfly as a fairly 

 efficient agent in the pollination of the Primrose. When alarmed, this 

 insect has the habit of flying to the nearest patch of dug ground, where, 

 closing its wings, it at once becomes invisible. 



W. K. Hart. 

 Kilderry, Co. Donegal. 



liadena protea in Tyrone. 



Last autumn (1916), a single example of this species turned up here 

 at sugar, close to the garden where there a few small oak trees. In a 

 demesne near here full of fine oak timber I have collected for many years 

 and never met with this species, which still appears to be very rare in 

 Ireland. 



Thomas Greer. 



Stewartstown, Co. Tyrone. 



Variation in Arion ater in Cork North-East. 



My friend Ernest Stainton, B.Sc, who is at present a signaller in the 

 2 /6th Battalion Scottish Rifles, in camp at Kihvorth, in vice-county 

 146 N.E., Cork North-east, is employing his leisure in collecting Mollusca, 

 and has sent me a number. One interesting consignment just received, 

 collected at Glanworth, under stones and decaying coffin -boards in the 

 churchyard, on 21st April, showed the remarkable extent oT colour- 

 variation so prevalent in the South-west of Ireland. There were about 

 a dozen Avion ater, all about a quarter-grown, including a few var. fasciata 

 one var, livida, a few var. svxcinea, a few very richly-coloured var. riifa, 

 and one very characteristic var. bicolor. With them were various shelled 

 species, Hyalinia lucida in abundance, and an adult example of Helix 

 nemoralis var. alhina 003/00, in which the band is well-defined, brown- 

 black, edged closely by a very fine line, a split-off. On the way between 

 Kilworth and Glanworth Signaller Stainton found a half-grown example 

 of typical Limax flavus, a species not often found in the open, away from 

 human habitations, 



