24 THE entomologist's record. 



A look round showed me that a short plant, which was almost 

 invisible, and which I had concluded was the common daisy, was 

 Heliantliemuni nilfiare. I saw no others on that day, but on the next 

 I saw about half-a-dozen but took none. The day after was very 

 favourable, and I took some 32 specimens, and liberated as many more 

 useless ones. Flying along with them, and occasionally battling with 

 them, were PolyommatKn icariis (alexia), CoenonyiniiJia pamphilnH, and 

 Kpinephele janira. While the last two were typical, the first species was 

 not. The females had a white or light blue blotch in the apical angle 

 of the forewings upon the upperside, while upon the underside the black 

 spots nearest the basal angle coalesced to form a black crescent. 

 Judging from the abundance of both P. var. artaxerxes and P. icarii^ 

 (ale.rU), that ova would not be difficult to find I commenced to search. 

 I soon found ova of P. artaxer.n's placed upon the uppersides of the 

 young leaves near the growing point of the plants of rockrose. Some 

 were hatched, but others were still as laid. I collected a fair number, 

 and we now have the larvae hybernating upon rockrose. The larvfP, 

 from the eggs which were hatched, had not remained upon the leaf upon 

 which the egg was, but had proceeded to the leaf lower down, and were 

 resting on the underside, eating the tissue of the lowerside of the leaf. 

 The larvfR are now from 2mm. -4mm. long, and rest upon the plant. 

 Similarly, I readily found ova of P. icarus (alexia), but was astonished 

 at the various plants from which I obtained ova. The greater number 

 were found upon Lotus rornirulatns and Trifolitiin prateme, but I got 

 six from plantain (Plantaijo lancrolata), four or five from yarrow (Achillea 

 millefolium), and one from burnet saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifrai/a). 

 The larva from these are also safely hybernating. I saw all three 

 species of whites, but Pieris napi was the only common one, and the 

 specimens are very strongly marked. I got ova from a female, and 

 we have a fair number of pup* from these ova. The only other 

 species of butterfly noted was a single specimen of Sati/riisseviele, a female, 

 which I netted, together with two Kpinephele janira, from a knapweed 

 head. I saw very few Geometrids, but those I did see were some 

 which I had rarely seen before. Of course Larentia dixhjmata was 

 present in great abundance, as was also 21elanippe jiactiiata. Eubolia 

 tnensnt-aria was also to be seen in fair numbers. In gardens. Abraxas 

 i/rossidariata, and ])ieti/opteri/x berf/manniana were in evidence. When I 

 visited the campion flowers, however, I was amply repaid for my labour 

 in climbing the cliffs. In Durham, members of the genus Kmrnelesia 

 are very rare, and I have only met with one in the larval state — 

 Kmmelesia decolorata. Here, however, nearly every campion plant had 

 on it from one to half-a-dozen larvte of E. decolorata or P. af/initata. 

 I collected some hundreds, but all proved stung, and I observed the 

 common yellow and black ichneumon engaged in ovipositing. Along 

 with the larviB of P. decolorata and P. affinitata were a fair number of 

 Knpithecia venosata larvae. Of course, larvae of Dianthoecia capsincola 

 and J), carjiophai/a were also plentiful. When I examined the heads 

 of PJdnantlnis cristi-t/alli, larvte of Kmmelesia alhidata were also 

 common. The only other Geometers captured were ( 'idaria fulvata, 

 and a single female Acidalia dimiiiiata, and I also, when I beat Senecio 

 jacobaea, obtained larv.'e of /*,'. centaiireata. I obtained ova from the 

 specimen of A. dim id lata, but, unfortunately, they proved infertile. 

 Large numbers of Anthrocerajilipendtdae were to be obtained at rest 



