288 THE entomologist's record. 



which neither Seitz's plate nor the actual specimens in the British 

 Museum coll. correspond at all. 



On page 14 of the brochure bearing the above title (page 190 of 

 the Proceedings of the above mentioned Society) I find the following 

 description of gnlba, which is here included in the Fabrician genus 

 Lyca&iia. 



" Galha, Kollar in Hit., plate 2, figure 4, male. Above scarcely distinguishable 

 from lysimov. The male has the same colour and the same broad black margin, 

 but the hindwings have in cell 2 a blackish marginal spot, separated from the 

 margin by a light-coloured line. The female is of an uniform brown above, the 

 black spot in cell 2 is more marked and bordered with bluish (blaulich umzogen), 

 the remaining cells show traces of marginal spots, notably towards the anal angle, 

 and the light marginal line is a little more sharply defined. The underside is light 

 brownish-grey as in lysimon or trocliiltis, only a little darker in the female than in 

 the male. The markings are here nearer to troehilus. On the forewing they are 

 identical with those of that species, only the centres of the spots (Die Kerne der 

 Flecken) are not so black, but of a dull-brown, and not eo clearly marked. The 

 hindwings resemble troehilus but lack the orange-yellow marginal band. The shape 

 and position of the dull brown eye-spots are the same as in trocldlus ; in cell 7 are 

 two black spots surrounded by light rings (hell umzogene Flecke) and below the 

 inner one of these and near the base of the wing, another, all in the same position 

 as in troehilus. The fourth spot below the last, which is present in troehilus, is 

 absent in galha. The spot on the anal margin itself, which is sharply marked in 

 troehilus, is here indistinctly present (nur matt vorhanden) and of the marginal 

 spots only the large ones in cell 2 are deep black and powdered with metallic scales 

 (mit Erzschuppen belegt), while the remainder are small and dull brown. I 

 obtained only 8 specimens, which were taken in company with lysiniou in clover- 

 fields. Herr Kotschy found this species in Senaar." 



Zach, who collected the insects mentioned in the brochuie 

 published by the Wiener zoologisch-botanischer Verein took lysituon 

 in clover-fields near Beirut in July, which gives us the date of i/alba's 

 appearance. 



In my humble opinion, which 1 only venture to put forward on 

 the ground that I have had considerable acquaintance wuth Zizera 

 lysimon, having taken it very frequently in Egypt, where it is wide- 

 spread, and also in Syria (Damascus 2,800ft., 2nd-6th September, 1910) 

 the insects figured by Seitz, doubtfully identified with (jalba in the 

 British Museum collection are hjsivum, smaller, slenderer and more 

 heavily spotted on the underside than my few spring specimens of that 

 species, and than most of the specimens from other localities (Tenerift'e, 

 Algeria, etc.), in the British Museum coll. I explain the difference 

 thus : — li/siiiion in Egypt is to be found in clover fields, generally in 

 good condition from the beginning of March till early in November. 

 The cold nights and damper air of the frequently irrigated fields in 

 late November and the next three months are unfavourable to the 

 rapid development of the larva, which, I am assured by Mr. Willcocks, 

 of the Khedivial Agricultural Society, feeds on cultivated clovers. The 

 specimens that first emerge in early March are larger and more 

 heavily built than those that occur in the hotter months, when there 

 is a rapid succession of broods if not continuous-broodedness. It is 

 just possible that the difference in the climatic condition accounts for 

 the tendency to the obsolescence of the underside spotting in my early 

 spring specimens. It appears to me to be highly probable that the 

 larger size of these specimens and of those from Algeria and the 

 Canaries, as compared with those taken later in the year in Egypt and 

 Syria by the writer, is due to the fact that the winter-feeding larva has 

 a more abundant and more succulent, because better watered, pabulum. 



