228 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



is, par excellence, the insect of the slopes, this summer brood being 

 brightly coloured and of large size, the only English examples I know 

 approaching them, being some captured in the hot July of 1893, on 

 the chalk downs at Cuxton, and Avhich were of a similar bright colour 

 to these southern forms. llithyia carnella was going over, but 

 CleJeobia ani/iistalis was in swarms and in fine condition, whilst 

 Stenopterjix hijbridalis was also abundant but worn. Kuclidia (jhjphica 

 appears to fly with *S'. clathrata and E. atomaria all day at the flowers, 

 but I was astonished to notice that E. ato)naria with P. corydon was 

 attracted by excrement at midday. On a white saxifrage that grew 

 abundantly on the tops of the walls several T/ierla spini weve taken, 

 some worn, others in moderate condition, whilst it was strange to find 

 a 9 Zep/ii/rus (jiterciis adopting the same habit, though several 

 examples of the species were also seen on the bushes, settling on 

 the topmost boughs as is more usual in the species. A row of eight 

 bright apple-green eggs, and two laid separately, were found in a 

 glass-topped box with a $ T. ffpini. They were evidently butterfly 

 or Noctuid eggs, but knowing how easily one may be deceived as to eggs 

 found in this manner, I dissected a worn $ , and found that she 

 contained apparently similar eggs. The eggs are orange-shaped, 

 /.('., a sphere somewhat flattened at the apex and base, attached 

 firmly by the latter, and with quite three dozen well-marked 

 longitudinal ribs passing from the base to the micropylar area, which 

 is slightly flattened, and where the ribs become lost in a marked 

 reticulation. In two days the upper part of the egg is becoming 

 mottled with faint brown-red patches, chiefly in the upper area. The 

 egg is so dissimilar to that of T. ir-albiim that one doubts, in spite of 

 the similarity of the imagines, whether the species are, after all, 

 if these really be the eggs of 2\ ilicis, so very close. ••' A few 

 Aporia crataei/i were observed, all males, a*nd in spite of the late 

 date, not at all in bad condition ; they haunted the flowers and not 

 their food-plant. On the first day (July 29th) spent on these 

 slopes, Acidalia ochrata was quite common, the males flying freely 

 in the morning sun and the females easily disturbed ; on this 

 day no A. rufaria was seen. The next day A. ochrata was still 

 common, and about half-a-dozen male A. rufaria were disturbed on 

 the same ground. On the 31st not a single male A. ochrata was to be 

 found, although the weather was in every Avay suitable, and I took 

 what I suppposed were four females; on the other hand, many male 

 A. rufaria were seen ; when I examined my captures at home, I 

 discovered that the four supposed 5 A. ochrata were of this species, 

 so that I really did not get a single specimen of the former species. 

 It is remarkable that two such closely allied species with almost 

 identical habits should live on the same ground and be in the imaginal 

 stage at the same time, although I had noticed this to be so previously 



* These eggs were sent to Mr. Dollman who wrote on August 21st: — "Tlie 

 illcis I cannot understand. Two of the eggs hatched the day after I received 

 them, and the remainder have only now darkened, but the larvte do not emerge. 

 The two larva were placed in oak, but would not feed. They were not like any 

 Thecla larvte I know. They were elongated geometrid-like things with four 

 claspers — a long thin body and large head — very like young Catocala fra.vini larvffi. 

 They also had the restless roving habit of that larva when young. Are you quite 

 sure the eggs are those of a TJiecla? " From this one suspects that after all the 

 eggs must have been those of some Geometrid-Noctua, e.g., Euclidia (jlypldca. 



