VIRACHOLA (HYPOLYCiENA) LIVIA, KLUG. 225 



no particular aberration being predominant, and the colour ranging 

 from the palest sea-green, with a few dark interrupted transverse lines 

 to an almost unicolorous brownish -black. From the sallow bushes, 

 Hypermecui crnciana {muinatana) and Rliacodia caialana were beaten, 

 the latter having a light brownish-grey ground colour strigulated with 

 red or purplish-black. The aspen trees alone appeared lifeless, pro- 

 ducing only a larva of Leiocampa dictaea ; Paedisca opthalinicana, which 

 I have taken here commonly in September, not being yet on the wing, 

 and not a specimen of TacJujptilia populella, which is so abundant in 

 Ross-shire, being seen. From a rose-bush Dictyopteryx bergmanniana 

 was beaten, and in a hawthorn hedge away from the burn Aryyresthia 

 nitidiila abounded. 



Another day I visited a deep gully near Lybster, through which 

 the Riesgill burn rushes to the sea a quarter of a mile below. Its 

 high steep banks, unlike those of the Camster, are clothed with 

 luxuriant herbage, yet the same bushes of hazel, birch, and sallow, 

 flourish here, unhindered by the winds which sweep across the valley 

 of the higher burn. Despite the greater shelter, the Riesgill valley 

 contained nothing like the same profusion of moths, only one specimen 

 of J'aedisca solandriana being seen, and not even one of Ephijipiphora 

 dmilana. From the dark steep rocks at the water's edge, and from the 

 overhanging bushes and tufts of grass, Hypsipetes sordidata, Larentia 

 olivata, and Cidaria iiiinianata were beaten, and amongst the low- 

 growing herbage Larentia didyiuata and Scopnla lutealis abounded. A 

 specimen of Adkinia hipunctidactyla was also taken. 



Such are the more interesting species observed, and though I can 

 record no rarities amongst them, the examples to be found of distri- 

 bution and variation would well reward a more lengthy visit to this 

 northern part. 



Virachola (Hypolycaena) livia, Klug — A Syrian Insect. 



By PHILIP P. GRAVES. 



While examining a collection of insects made mostly near Beiriit, 

 by Sig. F. Cremona, I was asked by that gentleman to identify a 2 

 Lycaenid which he had taken near that town this year. It proved to 

 be a ? of Virachola livia. On September 16th this year I visited two 

 localities near the town where Acacia farnesiana, the food-plant of 

 V. livia in Egypt, grows, and obtained a number of pods containing 

 larvae of this beautiful butterfly. I moreover caught a large and fairly 

 fresh 2 of V. livia, which was ovipositing on pods and flower-buds of 

 the Acacia. 



Neither Zach, who collected at Beirvit in the forties, nor any other 

 collector has, to the best of my knowledge, reported the presence in 

 Syria of this interesting African species. The question now arises — has 

 F. livia been introduced into Beirut by human agency, or is it a species 

 of African origin, but long established in Syria, as are Castalitts jesous, 

 Uypolimnas niisippus, Danais chrysippiis, and other species which occur 

 near Beirut and in other hot localities in Syria ? The discovery of V. 

 livia at points intermediate between Beirut and the Nile Valley would 

 certainly strengthen the latter hypothesis, and I venture to hope that 

 naturalists who may hereafter visit the Jordan Valley or the plain of 

 Esdraelon will look out for the butterfly wherever " fitneh " {A. far- 

 nesiana) grows. As for the theory of recent introduction by human 



