SCIKNTIFIC NOTES. 331 



(^RTHOPTERA. 



FoRFicuLA LESNEi, FiNOT, AT Bradfield. — On September 9th, 

 whilst on a visit to Dr. Joy, I swept a specimen of this rare earwig in 

 a wood at Bradfield. This is a new locality for it. It is not, how- 

 ever, its first record for Berkshire, as, in the Ent. Mo. Ma;/, for Novem- 

 ber, 1897, Mr. Malcolm Burr notes a <? , the second British authentic 

 capture, taken by me at Wallingford, in Septeinber, 1892. — -Horace 

 DoNisTHORPE, F.E.S., F.Z.S., 58, Kensington Mansions. October 9th, 

 1903. 



Labia minor, L., in October. — In the Ent. Mo. Ma//, for Novem- 

 ber, 1903, Mr. McLachlan records the capture of Labia minor at the 

 end of September, and comments on the late appearance. I thought 

 it perhaps worth while, therefore, to record its capture on October 1st, 

 in South Kensington, and on October 2nd I swept it at Tring. — Ibid. 



W"A R I A T I N. 



Aberration of Leucophasia sinapis. — While entomologising in 

 the Wye Valley with my son on June 1st, 1903, he took a specimen 

 of Leucophada sinapis, in which all the ordinarily black scales are 

 replaced by others of a dull orange, causing the underside of the 

 hindwings to very much resemble those of Fieris rapae, which was 

 very well described by his exclamation of — " Dad, I have taken an 

 orange-tip wood-white ! " — ^J. T. Fountain, 191, Darwin Street, 

 Birmingham. November 12tk, 1903. 



^^CIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Specific identity of Melit^a deione and M. berisalensis. — 

 In Mr. Wheeler's excellent butterfiy book, just published, he has 

 removed berisalensis, which Staudinger quotes as a var. of Melitaea 

 athalia, to M. deione, considering it the northern form of the latter 

 species. In exhibiting some berisalensis given me by Mr. Sloper at 

 the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, held on October 

 21st {Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., p. li), I remarked that the facies of these 

 examples from Martigny led me to suggest that the insect does not even 

 appear to belong to the athalia. group ; I further suggested that, 

 in my opinion, the insect comes very close to M. deione, although my 

 knowledge of the two insects is, at present, too little to agree or 

 disagree with Wheeler that berisalensis is a mere Swiss form of the 

 southern species. Powell, however, whose opinion I should be 

 inclined to prefer to that of any other European lepidopterist, writes 

 {in Zt«., 30, 10/03) : — "I have again made a thorough examination 

 of deione and berisalensis, and am quite satisfied that they belong to 

 one and the same species. When I received a series of berisalensis 

 from Mr. Sloper two years ago, I was at once struck by their resem- 

 blance to deione. The black is rather more extensive, but that is 

 natural, as it occurs further north ; the undersides are identical with 

 those of my spring specimens of M. deione. I think the additional facts 

 that they have two distinct broods, and that the larvfe use the same 

 foodplant, ought to settle the matter. I cannot think how Staudinger 

 came to classify berisalensis as a var. of M. athalia ; had he given the 

 matter proper attention, the affinity of berisalensis to deione must have 



