NOTES ON THE HYBERNATING HABITS OF PYRAMEIS ATALANTA. 105 



argiolus, Nomiades semiargus, NemeoMus lucina, Apatura i/ris and ab. 

 iole, A. ilia and ab. eos and ab. Uiades, Limenitis Camilla, L. sibylla, /,. 

 popidi, Polygonia c-album, Eugonia polychloros, Aglais urtieae, Vanessa 

 io, Euvanessa antiopa, Pyrameis cardui, Melitaea didyma, M. dictynna, 

 M. athalia, M. parthenie, Brenthis dia, Issoria latona, Argynnis niobe 

 ab. en's, A. adippe and ab. cleodoxa, Dryas paphia, Melanargia galathea, 

 Satyrus hermione, S. circe, Hipparchia semele, Pararge maera, P. egeria 

 var. egerides, P. achine (very common), Epinephele ianira, E. tithonna, 

 Enodia hyper anthus, Coenonympha arcania, C. parnphilus, Hesperia 

 carthami, Adopaea flava (titan man), Augiades sylvanus, Cyclopides palae- 

 mon (one, June 18tb, 1906). Of noticeable Geometrids, Thalera fim- 

 brialis, Larentia hydrata (one eacb). On my way to Switzerland, via 

 Bale, I turned off to Friborg-in-Baden, and made my first acquaint- 

 ance witb Melitaea maturna, typieal form, just out, June 8tb, and 

 Coenonympha hero, very worn and nearly over. 



Notes on the hybernating habits, etc., of Pyrameis atalanta. 



By Paymaster-in-Chief GERVASE F. MATHEW, R.N. 



In the February number of the Ent. Record, p. 47, Mr. H. W. 

 Head raises the question as to whether Pyrameis, atalanta hybernates 

 in this country, and gives it as his opinion that it does not, and asks 

 if there is any authentic record of its doing so. I think this query 

 will come rather as a surprise to many, who, like myself, have always 

 considered this insect as one of our ordinary hybernating species. As 

 far as my personal experience goes, I can recollect seeing it on three 

 or four occasions in mid-winter — (1) one was found hybernating in a 

 broken flower-pot in an out-house ; (2) another was found lying on 

 the ground under a wall, from whence some thick ivy had just been 

 stripped ; (3) another was seen fluttering about the window of a har- 

 ness-room, on a bright warm day in January or February ; and (4) one 

 was found lying on a pathway, having evidently been recently dis- 

 turbed from its winter quarters. Unfortunately I have not the dates 

 of the above instances, as they occurred many years before I kept a 

 journal, but there is no doubt that the faces were as stated. Since 

 then I have frequently seen the butterfly in May — possibly earlier — 

 and early June, and have looked on these as hybernated examples. 

 But I have always had an idea that P. atalanta was the last of the 

 Vanessids to go into hybernation, and the last to appear the following 

 spring, and I think it is now pretty generally believed that all the 

 British species hybernate in the perfect state, and that impregnation 

 takes place in the spring. Many of them go into hybernation soon 

 after assuming the perfect state, and are seldom seen in the autumn. 

 P. atalanta appears to linger the longest, and is often seen enjoying 

 the sweets of ivy bloom, on bright days, late in October, or even to the 

 beginning of November, but it takes a longer sleep than the others, 

 and does not reappear until well into May, or the beginning of June. 



Some entomologists seem to think that in certain seasons this 

 butterfly is double-brooded, but I fancy this is a mistake caused by the 

 fact that it is a long-lived species, and females deposit their ova from 

 June until August, so that the offspring of the same parent may be 

 living as larvae, pupa?, or even imagines, at the same time. I remem- 



