OBSERVED IN HEETFOEDSHIRE. 189 



"Ware : — " On Aiigust 4tli I captured, in tlie fruit-garden here, a 

 fine female specimen of C. edusay 



Duriui;' tlio past siimiuer I liad not the same opportunities for 

 taking advantage of the presence of cdusa as I had in 1877, and 

 I am therefore unable to give much information from my own ob- 

 servations with regard to its appearance in our county. In August 

 I was away from England and was pleased to find it very abundant 

 on the Continent. I remember seeing it on a sunny day fiying by 

 hundreds over the clover and potato patches at the back of the 

 dunes, in the south-west of Belgium, between Ostend and Nieuport. 

 It was a sight never to be forgotten. The insects with their bright 

 golden wings looked like blossoms which had escaped from their 

 stalks and gone a-gipsying. Only one came under my notice in 

 St. Albans, and that was fiying at a great pace across High Street. 

 Miss Onnerod also records seeing one in her garden at Torrington 

 House, and ]\Ir. Arthur Lewis saw one at Sparrowswick. At Tring 

 it was abimdant. Mr. E. Hartert, curator of the Hon. Walter 

 Kothschild's Museum, writes : " In 1892 C. edusa was very 

 plentiful in August and September, but only one helice was seen 

 and taken by the Honourable Charles Eothschild." Mr. Frank 

 Latchmore reports from Hitchin : " C. edusa abundant all round. 

 I saw several of the pale variety (helice) which were taken here." 

 Mr. Henry Warner, of Wonnley, says: "We had no great quantity 

 of C. edusa here as we had some years ago, but I observed some 

 half-dozen, and only one hyale. One of my sons saw an edusa at 

 Hendon in June ; those observed here were in August and Septem- 

 ber." Mr. W. Graveson also reports the appearance of edusa at 

 Hertford in the autumn. Erom Ferney House, Southgate, Mr. R. 

 Dymond writes: " My first edusa was a male in good condition. 

 I put it out of some thistles on August 3rd. It flew a short 

 distance and then settled, when it seemed to have no disposition 

 to fly further, so I easily caught it in my hat. After that my 

 captures were two on the 4th, one on the 5th, one on the 8th, 

 and one on the 10th, all males, in good condition; on the 5th I 

 caught my first female, which was very much battered and worn. 

 After that I took other females in a better condition." About 

 the 1 5th of August Mr. Dymond left home, so that his observations, 

 so far as Hertfordshire is concerned, ceased. He did not take 

 C. helice at all, but in September he saw hyale in splendid con- 

 dition on the railway-embankment near Oakleigh Park Station, 

 but unfoi-tunatcly failed to capture it. Mr. Dymond further 

 reports that the males of edusa which he took at Southgate were 

 both smaller and lighter in colour than some which were sent to 

 him from Sandgate. He also informs me that a great many of 

 these insects were taken by the lads of the Eoys' Earm Home 

 at Southgate. Mr. E. R. Chambers writes to the 'Entomologist' 

 that one example of each sex of edusa was taken at Harpenden 

 on the 8th of September, and a female on the 14th. We thus 

 have records of C. edusa, its pale variety helice, and C. hyale, 

 from our county during 1892. They were all, however, seen in 



