CURRENT Notes. 23 



before the tra,in was duej "sat down for a few moments on a convenient 

 hillock by the roadside. Half an hour later as he was being whirled 

 along in a first-class compartment ... he became subtly con- 

 scious of a tickling sensation in the region of his spine. He shifted 

 uneasily in his seat, but still the tickling continued, and on looking 

 down to ascertain the cause of this phenomenon, Sir Theodore was 

 amazed to observe that his ankles were covered with black ants, several 

 of which were busy exploring other parts of his body. He realised at 

 once that the roadside mound upon which he had recently sat must 

 have been an ant-heap, and the knowledge that hundreds of industrious 

 lepidoptera were gradually making their way up his legs was naturally 

 disconcerting." We will not follow the adventures of our hero after 

 inadvertently dropping his nether garments out of the carriage window 

 while shaking them, but we must ask ourselves whether anij of the 

 " stuff" done up for us in our current news-sheets can be relied upon; 

 even encyclopedias apparently have now fallen out of use, and the 

 " unbiassed internal consciousness of an open mind " alone relied on 

 for accuracy. 



Professor Hudson Beare, in the Proc. Hoy. Phys. Soc. of Edin., 

 has described and given the life-history of a beetle, Thanamnus rufipea, 

 Brahm., new to the British Fauna. It was taken with a swarm of 

 other species and insects among debris of pine needles, when beating 

 the tops of felled Scotch firs, at Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire, in 

 July, 1912. 



In the Bull. Sac. Knt. France, p. 435, M. Mabille reports that on 

 September 9th, 1912, he captured a specimen of Pieris ergane in his 

 garden at Perreux (Seine) among a large number of Pieris rapae which 

 he was systematically capturing and examining, with the hope of finding 

 Pieris Dianui, of which, however, he did not meet with a single example. 

 The specimen was a female and belonged to the ab. viai/nimacnlata 

 form. No others were taken or seen. Among the P. rapae M. Mabille 

 examined, he found a gynandromorph, the right side <? and the left 

 side ? . 



Parnassiiis apollu is still increasing the names for its forms. A 

 s^hort time ago M. Oberthiir devoted vol. vii. of the Etudes de Lepi- 

 dopteroluyie coiuparee to the study of the European races of this species 

 and especially those of France. He pointed out, at the same time, 

 that between the department of Lozere and the Pyrenees, no localities 

 for its occurrence were known. M. le Cerf, in the Bull. Soc. Ent. 

 France, p. 460, etc., reports specimens of P. apullo from Aveyron, and 

 after comparison with the figures published by M. Oberthiir, points out 

 their special characters and names the race as var. cebennica. The 

 series was taken at Hospitalet (Aveyron), and one at Gesse (Aude). 

 P. apollo is also reported to have been seen in the gorge of the Tarn 

 near Gaze, by M. C. AUaud, and in extreme abundance upon the Cause 

 de Mende, between Mende and Molines. 



The hdernational EJntouioloyische Zeltschrift during the last few 

 months has contained some very interesting articles. In No. 12 

 Professor Linstow has a notice of the various occurrences of masses of 

 European species of Lepidoptera, flj^iog together in one direction, and 

 apparently migrating. The chief species which so act are Pyrameis 

 cardui and Pieris brassicae, while one or two cases are given of Aylais 

 urticae, Pieris rajiae, Leucouia salicis, Plusia yauuua, Psilura [Lyman- 



