210 the entomologist's kecokd. 



appearance of the young larva, the length and number of the stadia, 

 pupal period, time of its emergence from pupa, length of time taken 

 in drying its wings. Newman's was a wonderful book, but no one 

 can study it without discerning how little he knew of the insects he 

 wrote about. 



May I urge upon all entomologists that virtue withont which 

 science is but a delusion — exactness. If we make records, let us try 

 to be as precise as we can ; if we exhibit, give the secretaries a chance 

 by supplying them with particulars which contain something of 

 permanent interest and value. 



Nemoria viridata, L, ab. mathewi, n. ab. 



By EUSTACE R. BANKES, M.A., F.E.S. 



This aberration differs from all the named forms of this species in 

 that both fore- and hindwings are dusted with orange scales. These 

 are fewest towards the bases, but become increasingly numerous 

 posteriorly, and are especially noticeable between the subterminal line 

 and the termen of the forewing, and on the corresponding portion of 

 the hindwing. 



In the five examples examined, the thorax also differs from that of 

 the ordinary forms, being of a dingy greenish-buff, and the actual 

 ground colour of the wings is rather paler and somewhat tinged with 

 dingy buff. It seems probable that the orange dusting, upon which 

 alone I rely as the characteristic of ab. mathewi, might occur in either 

 the typical form, or in any one of the named varieties that only differ 

 from the single-lined type in the number or distinctness of the trans- 

 verse white lines, but I have only seen it in var. cloraria, Hb., which 

 is the commonest form in Britain. 



A few individuals of this singular aberration, which occurs in both 

 sexes, were bred, amongst a goodly series of ordinary forms, in June, 

 1905, by Paymaster-in-Chief Gervase F. Mathew, K.N., after whom I 

 have much pleasure in naming it, from ova laid by a female captured 

 in South Devon. The larvae were reared on hawthorn, of which they 

 showed a preference for the most succulent shoots, and fed up very 

 slowly. I have little doubt that at first sight anyone would suppose 

 that the peculiar sickly appearance of ab. mathewi was due to discolora- 

 tion, but an examination, under a lens, of the orange scales precludes 

 any such idea, and Mr. Mathew, whose accuracy of observation is 

 well-known, informs me that the specimens, when freshly emerged, 

 were of the present colour, or, if anything, a trifle brighter. They 

 were killed, as were all the rest of the beautiful brood to which they 

 belonged, by an injection of oxalic acid following on stupefaction by 

 chloroform. The ordinary forms of viridata begin to fade, as they 

 invariably do in the cabinet, at the bases of the wings, but in ab. 

 mathewi the departure from the normal coloration is far more notice- 

 able near the termen, and much less so at the base, than elsewhere. 



Notes on Collecting Lepidoptera in Egypt in May and June. 



By PHILIP P. GRAVES. 

 Save for a day in the Wadi Hof, near Helwan, in mid-March, 

 when two or three Anthoeharis belia were taken, I was unable to do 



