178 THE entomologist's record. 



smaller species and flew oft'. I captured it with difficulty some two 

 hundred yards away. On May 20th my attention was attracted to a 

 yellowish-leaved stunted nettle by a $ ^4. iirticae, which fluttered 

 round it. I then saw a 5 V. io ovipositing under one of the leaves. 

 The urticae $ continued to fly round and sometimes to buftet the io, 

 which latter, however, would not stir, when, to my astonishment, the 

 A. urticae got on to the leaf beneath, and behind the F. io, and fairly 

 pushed the larger species from its position. The V. io flew away and 

 settled in the road; the urticae this time did not take the place of the 

 io, but after searching a few minutes it selected and settled on a leaf a 

 few inches away, in the usual position for egglaying. 



Meanwhile, the io, which had only deposited about a dozen eggs, 

 sailed about the road in the usual way, then suddenly made a bee-line 

 back to the yellow nettle, and taking no notice of the urticae J close 

 by, it fixed itself on the leaf as before, and laid eggs for over two hours. 

 The A. urticae was taken by me from its leaf after about 40 minutes, 

 when I supposed there would be enough eggs, and I did not want to 

 risk losing the $ , which is hard to capture after ovipositing. I then 

 found out that very curiously it had laid no ova at all, its body being 

 still quite full of them. 



I only once saw a $ ^. urticae disturbed by one of its own kind 

 while ovipositing, when the female did not return to its ova, although it 

 had not nearly laid the full number. Though $ s of ^. iirticae passed 

 very often near or over those that were ovipositing, they were not 

 attracted to them as to V. io. Whatever this attraction may mean 

 which T'. io has for A. urticae, it certainly does not seem to be recipro- 

 cated by the larger species, which, indeed, appears to be much 

 disgusted at the bullying attentions of the smaller butterfly. 



The numbers of larvae of both species which I have since found, 

 all showed by their sizes and dates of appearance, that A. urticae 2 s 

 had laid no eggs this year before May, and T'. io $ s not before May 

 15th-20th. After June 3rd both species disappeared suddenly. The 

 height of the egg-laying season for both species fell in the last days of 

 May. 



Lepidoptera of the Tirol — Meran. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 

 It now became necessary to make another move. There routes were 

 possible (1) due east into the Val d'Ampezzo district, which we worked 

 well, but did not write up in August, 1895, (2) south to the Lake Garda 

 district, or (3) west to the foot of the Stelvio. Our minds were soon made 

 up and we plumped for the Stelvio, calling at Meran on the way. It 

 was a lovely morning when we left Botzen, but long before we reached 

 Meran we had entered a stormy patch. The Mendel mountains, so 

 beautiful the preceding day, were enshrouded in storm-clouds, and 

 thunder and lightning were the order of the day. At Meran station 

 we were held up for about an hour and a half whilst the heavens 

 flooded the town, and afterwards diggings had to be obtained, and we 

 settled ourselves down with such degree of comfort as could be 

 obtained. Next day, August 10th, was also stormy but not raining, 

 so about 10 a.m. a start was made for the Passeierthal, but the 

 weather was too threatening for a long walk, and the country too 



