126 THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S RECORD. 



A short while before starting to fly again, the wings would, at intervals, 

 be slowly opened a little bit and shut again ; but soon she would be 

 opening them more and more, and moving them up and down with 

 increasing briskness, and at last off she would fly, sailing gracefully 

 about the garden once more. All the time she was observed, she was 

 never once seen going to any flowers for refreshment, although 

 frequently passing clumps of Arabia albida in full bloom, a favourite 

 flower in the spring of Aylais urticae, and frequented also by Vanessa 

 io, Gonepteryx rhamni, and Pieris rapae. A. urticae, Avhich, by the 

 way, is remarkably numerous this spring, is very busy, when the 

 weather is fine, making up for its long winter sleep by feeding, 

 morning and afternoon, during the hours of sunshine, chiefly at Arabis 

 in gardens, and at Ranunculus Jicaria in the fields and orchards. One 

 would have thought that P. c-album would have been likewise engaged. 

 Of course she may have visited flowers during the many times she 

 escaped from view, but, when under observation, she completely ignored 

 these attractions. Since April 1st, I have several times searched the 

 fruit bushes and nettles, but as yet have only found one more egg, 

 laid like most of the others, on the upperside, and close to the edge of 

 a gooseberry leaf. Six out of the seven eggs were laid on this plant, 

 and the remaining one on currrant ; four have eleven longitudinal 

 keels, or ribs, and three ten (see also Nat. Hist. Brit, hep., i., p. 11). 



Since writing the above notes, the three new parts of the second 

 volume of Mr. Tutt's Natural History of the British Butterflies have 

 been received, and I read, on page 13, that " Polyyonia c-album usually 

 lays several eggs (one on the other) on a plant." Has this mode of 

 depositing the ovum been observed in the natural state, or is it only 

 an assumed habit of the species when kept in confinement ? [This 

 has been our opinion of the egg-laying habit for many years. It must 

 be at least 20 years since we saw eggs thus laid, and there is a note to 

 the effect that "P. interroyationis, as well as P. c-album, has this 

 habit." It is, of course, well-known also, that the allied Araschnia 

 levana lays her eggs similarly. We shall be glad of observations on 

 the point. — Ed.] 



I did not expect that we should find any more eggs of Polyyonia 

 c-album this spring, but, on April 10th, after posting my previous notes 

 on this species, my father and I had a very successful hunt on some 

 currant bushes we had not searched before, so, with four more eggs 

 found on subsequent dates, we have added 21 to our bag, making 

 28 in all. 



The first young larva hatched out (from one of the found eggs) 

 probably early in the morning on April 21st. About 2 p.m. the 

 previous day I noticed that it had started to nibble at the eggshell, 

 and, when I last looked at it that night, at 11 o'clock, it was still in its 

 shell, but had made the opening much larger. At 5.30 next morning, 

 I found it quietly resting, a little distance from the empty eggshell. 

 The second to make its appearance was the larva out of the first egg I 

 saw laid (on March 31st). Although it commenced to gnaw a way 

 out in the afternoon of April 21st, between 2 and 4 o'clock, it did not 

 hatch out until next morning ; the exact time I do not know, but it 

 had not quitted its shell at 5.30 a.m. Perhaps the following summary 

 may prove of interest : — 



Plants on which the ova were laid. — Five were laid on gooseberry, 



