234 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



are hovering round the large vermihon flowers of the pomegranate 

 under the deep blue Mediterranean sky. The whole makes up a scene 

 'Of almost tropical brilliance. Goneptery.v rliamni I have never seen here, 

 and my reference to it on page 133^ of vol. xv., of the Knt. Bee. was a 

 lapf!us calami. Celastrina aiy/iolus is common in both broods. The 

 males are more of a lilac tint than ours, and in the females of the 

 second brood there is a strong tendency towards the disappearance of 

 the blue coloration entirely, its place being taken by a dusky suffusion. 

 Polyoiiimatiis icarus is distinctly scarce and I do not think I have come 

 across a score of specimens all told. Several of the males taken are small, 

 undersized insects, but otherwise my specimens would pass for our 

 ordinary English form. This is not the case, however, with Aricia 

 astrarche, which is nearly always of the var. calida, the orange spots 

 being very pronounced. It is by no means an abundant insect here, 

 but is much more frequent than P. icanis. Scolitantides baton I have 

 taken once only and (jrlaucopsi/che cyllarus only twice, one example in 

 February and one in May. Lampidas hoeticm occurs in two broods — 

 in May and August — and is to be met with in the neighbourhood of 

 the Spanish broom, on which the larvae feed. It is not common and is 

 very capricious in its appearance, and it seems to get worn very quickly. 

 Most of the examples which I have come across, both at Brindisi 

 and in other parts of Italy, have been unfit for the cabinet. Ritinicia 

 phlaeas is more abundant than any of the " blues," and is found 

 commonly in the grassy lanes. I have met with the type in the early 

 spring, but a little later the ab. elens is the only form to be found. 

 The Argynnids are but poorly represented, owing, no doubt, to the 

 absence of woodlands. Is!<oria latona occurs sparingly in the weedy 

 lanes, and Dnjas pandora in plantations and gardens. The latter 

 species is on the wing as early as June 20th in a favourable year. A 

 dark form of Melitaea phoebe is to be met with occasionally in the lanes, 

 and M. didyma — a fine large form — on the rough ground at the 

 harbour mouth. The females of this species are especially interesting 

 and though many of those taken present a facies similar to that 

 commonly met with in Switzerland (var. alpina), many more show not a 

 trace of dark green, the ground colour of both fore- and hindwings 

 being but little less bright than that of the males. To me, however, 

 the striking feature about them is their size, for they look like giants 

 .against their kindred from the Alps. Fyrameis atalanta is occasionally 

 met with in the neighbourhood of gardens but P. cardui is abundant 

 everywhere, as, indeed, it ought to be, seeing that. thistles of numberless 

 species form a very large proportion of the flora of the neighbourhood. 

 The fresh brood appears on the wing in the third week of May. 

 Polyyonia egea is not infrequent on the stone walls of the wine-presses 

 and tool-houses dotted about the countryside, and my examples from 

 Brindisi are considerably brighter in colour than those which I took at 

 Grasse in the Alpes-Maritimes last j-ear. Epinephele janira appears at 

 the end of April and a fortnight later is very common. It is a fine and 

 very large form which is met with here, the females being verj- brightly 

 coloured and, in a large proportion of them, there are large fulvous areas 

 on the hindwings. E. ida keeps more to the lanes than does its near 

 relative E. janira, and, in these situations, it is very common from the 

 middle of May to the end of June, though towards the end of its time 

 it is scarcely recognisable. It is an insect that soon loses its freshness, 



