A LIFE-HISTORY OP^ COLIAS ERATE. 273 



lunules are normal, except for a slight paleness in the outer line. The 

 whole of the lunule is present. 



One specimen with the underside of the right wing densely covered 

 with greenish-blue scales similar to those usually present at the base. 

 These scales cover the whole wing with the exception of an area near 

 the costa. The left wing is normal. I have never seen a similar 

 specimen. Dr. Cockayne has kindly examined the specimen, and tells 

 me that these scales are exactly similar to those usually found at the 

 base of the wing, being shorter, broader and blunter than the brown 

 scales. The greenish-blue area is sharply divided from the brown area 

 along the costa, except that the latter area includes one small patch of 

 greenish scales. Of the other specimens referred to the last appear to 

 be classifiable with Dr. Cockayne's " No. 7 " (p. 224). I am no 

 microscopist, but on examining the specimen with a lens there seems 

 a distinct difference in tint between these last four, in which the tint 

 approaches that of the blue in ab. semisyuf/raii/ia, and the previous 

 eleven, in which the tint is lighter. I make this statement with some 

 reserve, as the apparent difference maybe due to the scales being more 

 scattered in the eleven specimens. 



A fact of more importance, I think, is that in the specimen, among 

 the "eleven," which I classify with Dr. Cockayne's first six, the 

 approach of the blue-scaled area to the hind margin involves a change 

 in the marginal lunule at the point. In the specimen among the 

 "four" in which the same thing occurs, no change is observed, the 

 lunule being as completely normal as in ab. xeiiiisi/ui/rafiJia. This 

 seems to some extent to confirm the conclusion arrived at by Dr. 

 Cockayne, that specimens of the latter class are not true hermaphro- 

 dites, while those of the former class are. It is a small point, but in 

 an enquiry of this sort, in whieh facts are somewhat elusive, nothing 

 is of such small importance as not to be worth recording. 



A Life=history of Colias erate. 



By W. G. SHELDON, F.E.S. 



Whilst staying at Sarepta last May, I confined a female of Colias 

 erate over a number of leguminous plants, which grew in the locality 

 in which the butterfly occurred ; amongst them were MelilotnH offtci- 

 nali>t and Onnhrychis aativa, and upon a leaflet of the former plant the 

 female obliged me by depositing one ovum on May 22nd. This ovum 

 when deposited was straw coloured, opalescent, but not very glabrous ; 

 it was of course of the usual Colias shape. On May 2&rd it had changed 

 in colour to dark red, and on the 29th to lead colour, and later on this 

 day the larva emerged. The egg stage was thus the very short period 

 of seven days. 



In the early morning of May 30th I saw that the larva had during 

 the previous night eaten the egg-shell ; during the course of this day it 

 partook of a leaflet of Melilotus (iffjri)ialis, upon which plant I fed it 

 throughout. It was 2mn:i. in length ; head black, 2nd segment light 

 green, remainder of segments brownish-green ; it rested stretched at 

 full length on the midrib of the leaflet, on the upperside, and had 

 nibbled two circular holes, leaving, however, the lower cuticle entire. 



On June 1st the larva was feeding well, eating the leaflet away 



