232 [October, 



has found that it does not refuse the purple Iris in his garden at 

 Woking. Some larvae placed on a clump of the latter plant did not, 

 however, complete their development, but they may have been picked off 

 by birds. 



Larvae of Phymafocera atei'rima — which is also shining and black, 

 even to the wings, its blackness scarcely relieved by the very slightly 

 jmler hue of the front tibiae — have been ver}^ abundant on Solomon's Seal 

 in some Cambridge gardens this summer, the plant being in some places 

 quite stripped by them. I remember noticing a similar abundance of this 

 insect in 1911 at Henley-on-Thames and at Teddington, Middlesex. 

 Both 1911 and 1921 were seasons of heat and di'ought, and I have 

 thought that such conditions might specially favour this sawtly. But 

 Mr. Morice has had a contrary' experience to mine, for in 1921 he has 

 for the first time seen no larvae or imagines of this insect at Woking. 

 Usually, he relates, the larvae appear quite plentifully there — not, how- 

 ever, in the heat of the day, but in the evening. 



University Museum of Zoolog}^, Cambridge, 

 Atif/. 30th, 1921. 



77te black variety of Papilio macliaon in Norfolk. — Mr. J. P. Lloyd, tho 

 fortuuate captor of the black aberration of P. iitnchaon recorded in the 

 Septenjber No. of this Magazine [cmted, p. 209) has furnished us with a 

 very interesting account of the circumstances of its capture at Ranworth. 

 When first observed, it was flying near the tops of some trees in company 

 with an ordinary P. machaon, and it settled high up among the branches. 

 Another viachaon approached, and the stranger came down almost within 

 striking distance, when, instead of being, as was at first thought, a Vanessa to, 

 it Avas seen to be a black '' swallow-tail." Again returning to the tree-tops 

 it shortly afterwards came down after another machaon, and then disappeared 

 for a considerable time. Mr. Lloyd then caught and liberated several more 

 "swallow-tails" near the trees in the hope of once more attracting the insect 

 within reach, but without any result; and, after a vain search in the marshes near 

 at hand, he returned once more to the spot where it had been last seen for a final 

 effort. Suddenly the black butterfly sailed downwards, and this time it settled 

 on a bush ; Mr. Lloyd had only a landing-net with him, but a lucky stroke 

 with this inadequate weapon secured the prize with fortunately only very 

 slight damage. The predilection of the insect for the tops of trees is certainly 

 a departure from the ordinary habit of the species. The ab. niger of P. machaon 

 appears to be excessively rare, only about half-a-dozen specimens having so far 

 been recorded. We understand that the unique British example has found a 

 permanent home in one of the principal private collections oi Lepidoptera. — Eds, 



Ahraeus granulum JEr. at Tubney, Berks. — The famous " Tubney Tree " 

 which stood on the roadside between that village and Fyfield was probably 

 the largest wych-elm in Berkshire, but for many years past it has been in an 



