214 [September, 



gnibs should be sent in wet sphagiuxm, and, as the leaves of the lucerne when 

 picked quickly wither, it is necessary to place them in a glass of water. I con- 

 clude he wishes to work out the Inology of this beetle. — A H. Swinton, 

 Braishfield, Romsey, Hampshire : July, 1912. 



" A rare butterfly' s journey." — We copy the following from the "' Daily 

 Mail " of August 10th. — " What apparently is a very rare butterfly has been 

 captured by the Rev. Hugh S. Walford at Bracknell It is a black swallow-tail 

 butterfly, which, with wings extended, measures 18|in. isic ! ) Mr. Walford knows 

 it to be neither English nor European, but thinks it may be either Indian or 

 Japanese. The butterfly is a splendid specimen, and has pi-obably come to 

 England in some packing-case in the chrysalis stage. It was caught in the 

 woods a mile from the village." — Eds. 



Melanism in Abraxas grossidariata. — During the spring of this year I had 

 collected for me, from a market garden close to this toAvn, over six thousand 

 larva; and pupa; of Abraxas grossidariata. The last lot brought to me consisted 

 of six hundred pupae only, and they were j)ut into a separate cage. From them 

 I bred two large ' all-black ' <? moths, and a third similar <? , except that in it 

 the yellow band can be faintly traced through the black, and of which in the 

 other two there is no trace. The form has nothing to do with var. varleyata 

 (which form I do not regard as a case of true melanism), but is evidently the 

 extreme form of var. riigrosparsata, in which the iisual black dots and spots of that 

 form have become so dense as to overlap each other and form an uniform black 

 siu-face. The three specimens were probably all from one brood, and no doubt 

 the pvipas were collected from the same part of the garden, as the tliree moths 

 emerged on two following days, the first on June 18th, the two others on the 

 next day, the 19th. Nothing like them appeared from the larvae, large as the 

 number was, although from them I lirt'd some three dozen examples of var. nigro- 

 sparsata, varying from pale moths sparingly freckled with the black dots, 

 through intermediate forms to the finest dark form of the variety, and then to 

 the specimen so near the ' all-black ' f oi-m that only the indistinct yellow median 

 band separates it. The 'all-black' form has never been noticed in this district 

 before, and is seemingly another instance of progi-essive melanism. 



The larvtB, too, were far more variable this year than I have ever seen 

 them, thoiigh that may be becaiise I have never previously had so many wild 

 larvae at one time. The almost black form which the late Mr. Eobson used to 

 send out from near Newcastle-on-Tyue (described and figured in Buckler's 

 *' Larvae ") was in fair numbers, and specimens occurred of almost every inter- 

 mediate form between it and the ordinary form ; whilst one very striking form, 

 fairly numerously represented, was so striped and coloured as to have a siiper- 

 ficial resemblance to a huge larva of Hypsipetes elutata! The late Wni. Buckler 

 would have revelled in them. — Geo. T. Poreitt, Elm Lea, Dalton, Huddersfield : 

 August 12th, 1912. 



