74 THE entomologist's record. 



August last year ; but they were extremely local, being entirely 

 confined to one clover field. — Ibid. 



Lepidoptera observed at Basle. — Many lepidopterists who visit 

 Switzerland go through Basle, few appear to stop there, and one 

 suspects there is little enough entoniologically for which to stay. 

 However, inability to hurry kept me there for a day or so, and having 

 spent one day looking about the town, I took, on July 23rd (1904), my 

 net and zinc collecting-box, and set out to see what the country near 

 the city was like. Ignorance of where to find the waste places 

 around, led me to take the road leading from the Central Railway 

 station, past the Margarethen Park, and so towards Fliihen. The 

 country was, however, highly cultivated, and there was little to note 

 entoniologically, the only point, perhaps, being the great abundance 

 of Pieiis rapae, P. napi and ('alias hi/aP in all the lucerne fields in the 

 neighbourhood. I believe I have before recorded a remarkable habit 

 of the last-named species. When a male has succeeded in really 

 attractmg the attention of a 2 , he flies directly into the air, the $ 

 following him, circling closely round and beating with her wings, 

 often ascending high into the air and descending again, only to con- 

 tinue the chase by going up agam, and, usually, finally separating and 

 flying in difterent directions. I still think, somehow, it is a courting 

 habit, yet I have never seen an actual pairing result therefrom, 

 although I have seen the J settle and the c? hover around her as 

 if he intended pairing, both, however, finally flying away. It has 

 been suggested that it is a repelling habit due to the J having 

 been already fertilised — a quite possible solution. A $ C. hyale 

 approaching the ^ in colour also interested me much. , Strangely 

 enough C. edn^a was scarcely observed, although Gimepterij.»- fhannii 

 $ s were already out, and Fontia daplidice was worn and hardly worth 

 taking. Parargr inef/aera was common, and Epinephele ianira swarmed 

 everywhere, as also did Pob/onunatiis icarus and Coenonynipha pavi- 

 /j/iUhh in suitable places. ThymelicHs linenla and Melanaviiia galatea 

 had evidently been abundant, but were now m very bad condition, 

 whilst a single NiKonidfles tat/cs suggested a partial second -brood as is 

 occasionally, in hot summers, the case with us. (Jhrijsop/ianns pklneas 

 Avas just coming out, so also was Polyonrmatns astrarc/te, but (J, dorilu 

 was, though quite abundant, in rather poor condition, quite a large 

 numbei- having to he overhauled for a score of good specimens. The 

 2 s were somewhat variable, the general tendency being towards 

 having dusky, and not bright coppery, fcu'ewings. I may add that a 

 large number of little I'ieris napi ab. iiiinor and P. rapae ab. winor, 

 were observed, the greater number, however, of these species being 

 quite up to the average size. Only two moths attracted attention, viz., 

 a specimen or two of Anthrocera epkialtes, six-spotted, and with red 

 abdominal belt, on lucerne flowers, and Aciilalia iniiiiorata, disturbed 

 rather commonly out of the bankside weeds by the side of a clover 

 field. A strange rnntreteiiips occurred just beyond St. Margaret's C'hurch. 

 I had chosen the upper of two apparently main roads as being the most 

 promising, and had got some little distance along it when I was 

 accosted by a rough-looking individual, whose German I understood as 

 little as he followed my English. He knew no I'rench, and exhibited 

 a metal ticket taken from his pocket which led me to suppose he was 

 a sort of forester, and all I could gather was that the road was for- 



