SALE OF THE LATE J. A. CLARk's COLLECTION OF LEPIDOPTERA. 19 



was very attractive to such moths as tleliothia pelti;iero, Plnsia 

 iiaiitma, Cirphis Inrci/i, Lap/ii/rpiia exirjaa, and Aijrotis se;irtinii, and 

 light attracted Tavariama acacia, and Pandeso)na querava<ll. 



Deiopeia pidclwlla seemed fairly common at Assuan, one specimen 

 I took flying of its own accord 'in the sunshine on March 9th, and 

 others were disturbed from the long grass towards sunset, to fly for a 

 ^hort distance with a wild, erratic flight, before settling again in a 

 similar place. 



Such are the few lepidoptera I took during my three months' 

 stay in Egypt, and, from what I was able to observe, they presented 

 quite a British aspect, as will be obvious to any reader from some of 

 the familiar names mentioned above. On the whole, the country did 

 not seem very rich in lepidoptera, all the ground suitable to insect 

 life being richly cultivated, and the only Avaste ground desert. May 

 not, too, the flooding of the green parts in summer, caused by the 

 rising of the Nile, make the struggle for existence doubly hard ? 



Sale of the second part of the late J. A. Clark's collection of 



Lepidoptera. 



The second portion of the collection of lepidoptera formed by the 

 late J. A. Clark was sold on December 7th and 8th, 1909. The prices, 

 on the whole, ruled low, except for verj' special aberrations and great 

 rarities. The -10 specimens of Papilio machaon described by Farren 

 {Knt. Iter., iv., pp. 100-108) produced only £1 16s., but three other 

 aberrations brought 10s. Some good forms of Kuclilo'e canlainiiics, 

 Cnliaa ediiaa, and C. hyale produced 10s., lis., los., 7s., and 8s. per lot, 

 whilst lots (8) of var, helice produced 18s., 14s., and 21s. respectively. 

 A gynandromorphic Gonepteryx rhanrni (left forewing chiefly g , the 

 rest 2 , with streaks of g colour, "Tilgate, July 9th, 1900") produced 

 £4: 5s.; a remarkable Broit/iis selene {? B. eiiphmsyne) aberrant on both 

 sides (Abbott's Wood, 1892) £3 5s. ; a pale cream-coloured B. enp/irosync 

 (New Forest. 1893) £2 ; a dark heavily blotched example of the same 

 species (Epping Forest, June 7th, 1891) £4 8s. ; another, forewings 

 deeply suffused, hindwings with basal f black (" Rev. S. Patterson, 

 Bournemouth, 1901") £5 10s.; another dubiously B. aelene or B. 

 eiipliroaync without black spots, except in cell, but dusted with black 

 between nervures (Sutherland, 1892) £4 ; another B. selene (Ashdown 

 Forest, 1881, figured in South's Bnttevjiien, pi. Ivi., fig. 3) £5 ; another 

 banded through both wings £1 Is. A fine Aniynnisaylaia (Molescombe, 

 near Brighton, July 13th, 1903, figured in South's B>utterfiies, pi. Ixi., 

 fig. 5) £9; A. adippe var. cleodoxa (W. G. Pearce, New Forest, July 

 27th, 1895), with others, 16s. ; A. niobe (Chichester, September 19th, 

 1895, S. M. Scholefield), with six A. adippe, 14s. This is funny, 

 especially the date, as the species is well over at 8000ft. elevation in 

 the Alps in August. If the A. niobe were British, it would be, judged 

 by " Di.spars," worth at least £50, if foreign (or an escape!) worth Id., 

 but someone gives 14s., estimated, it has been suggested, by adding 

 together the British and foreign value £50 Os. Id., dividing this sum 

 by the 100 to 1 chance that it is not British, leaving 10s. for this, and 

 4s. for the A. adippe; J)ryas papltia, with blotches of valesina coloui', 

 which was once publicly stated not to exist in these specimens, fetched 

 Gs. and 10s.; a remarkable rayed cT (New Forest, 1897), broken, £1 2s.; 



