6o The Irish Naturalist. May, 



RHOPALOCERA. 



Pieris napi L. — The collection contains some interesting specimens of 

 the " Green-veined White " found chiefly in the Bray district. 

 Amongst these is a beautiful yellow form captured in a field between 

 the Great Sugar Loaf and the road to Kilmacanogue on the 4th 

 June, 19 1 3. This specimen is a female and it greatly resembles 

 the variety flava Kane, but is of a paler tone, while the spots on 

 the fore wings are rather blurred and are only slightly darker than 

 the grey of the nervures, the latter are rather heavily dusted with 

 dark scales. The underside is like that of the typical form ; in var. 

 flava the yellow areas equal the upper side in depth of colour. A 

 figure of the last named variety will be found in Mr. Kane's 

 " Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Ireland." 



There are a few examples of the summer form napaeae Esper, in 

 which the females have strongly blackened wing — tips, larger spots 

 and darker nervures, the spots showing through very distinctly on 

 the underside of the wings. Both sexes were found at Bray Head 

 in July, and at Errislannan in Gal way in September. There is also 

 a primrose coloured female taken at Kilmacanogue marsh on the 24th 

 May with the nervures and spots of a uniform pale grey resembling 

 a Scotch variety figured by Mr. Barrett ("" Lepidoptera of the British 

 Islands," i, plate 3, fig. i c), except that the spots are weaker in 

 the Irish specimen. A very small male, measuring onl)^ 35 mm., 

 caught in April in the same locality may also be mentioned. 

 Euchloe cardamines L.— Both sexes of a small form of the " Orange 

 Tip " were captured at Kilmacanogue marsh on the 21st May, 19 13. 

 The wing expanse is only 36 mm. 

 Colias edusa Fb. — One male captured on Bray Head in July, 1904. 

 Gonopteryx rhamni L. — North side of Merlin Park in County Galway, ist 

 September, 191 4 ; and observed about three miles from Galway 

 along the east shore of Lough Corrib (Diary, 3rd September, 19 14). 

 Melitaea aurinia Rott. — A series of this interesting butterfly, the local 

 " Marsh Fritillary," was found at Kilmacanogue marsh between the 

 13th and 28th June, 1913. Most of the specimens are the prevalent 

 Irish variety praeclara Kane, the chief features of which are the 

 sharply marked contrast between the red-fulvous and the straw- 

 coloured areas of both wings, and the intensified dark markings. 

 In the Kilmacanogue specimens the fulvous sub-terminal bands of 

 the fore wings show little trace of the paler spots usual in this variety. 

 There are also a few females of the variety scotica Kane, and at least 

 one of a form with the black reticulation of the wings even more 

 marked than in praeclara, and the straw-coloured patches are more 

 or less tinged with fulvous resembling some examples of typical 

 ICnglish M. aurinia. Colonies of the caterpillar of this butterfly 

 are also recorded in Mr. Cusack's diary as having been found in 

 Merlin Park and at Errislannan in county Galway. 



