202 THE entomologist's record. 



on either side of the front of the forewings, and, in this position, she 

 stood immobile in front of the J as before ; he stood in front of her, with 

 his wings pushed well back, and began again the same peculiar 

 operation, moving his head rapidly from left to right, his extended 

 tongue flicking the costte of the wings at each movement, and being 

 drawn back rapidly as before. Slowly and gradually he got nearer 

 and nearer to her, until llicldng again her antenna? with his tongue, 

 she flirted her wings quickly downward again and drove him backwards 

 as before. The rapidity of the head movements of the 3 was carefully 

 counted and worked out at about twelve in five seconds. As the insects 

 had now been under observation foi' over ten minutes, and the move- 

 ments of the 3' were quite continuous without a break lasting more 

 than a second or two, I determined to eat my lunch and try to make 

 out what such a peculiar habit could possibly mean ; it could not 

 possibly be a courting habit, because both specimens were somewhat 

 worn, and the ? was busy egglaying before the 3 put in an appear- 

 ance, and there was no attempt at pairing ; it could not but be 

 pleasing to the $ , otherwise she could have gone ofi* at any moment, 

 nor could the 3 be using any mesmeric effects upon her, for the 

 moment he approached too closely, she drove him back w4th the 

 swift flicking movements of her wings already described, bringing 

 about as ah'eady noted a slight relative change in the position of 

 the two insects ; the performance, as above described, was continued for 

 47 minutes, Avhen a bungling specimen of Pieris rapae swooped down 

 upon them, hovered closely over them, and Hew off, but not before it 

 had disturbed the 3 , which rapidly left the ? and disappeared in 

 another direction. The $ , now unattended, flew slowly off, and was 

 soon apparently again engaged in the ordinary duties of egglaying. 

 So far as finding out the meaning of this strange performance, the 

 observation was a failure, but, as tending to show that the habit is a 

 common one in the species, I may add that, about half-an-hour 

 afterwards, another g was observed to follow the same tactics towards 

 a 2 he came upon, but this time they were similarly disturbed by 

 another Pieris rapae before the performance had been more than 

 two or three minutes in progress ; there will, therefore, no doubt, be 

 no difficulty in the observation being repeated, when someone more 

 fortunate than myself may be able to discover the meaning of this 

 elaborate and strange habit which evidently occurs commonly between 

 the two sexes. 



Polyommatus sapphirus, Meig. = P. escheri, Hubner. 



By J. W. TUTr, F.E.S. 

 In working through Meigen's Si/s. BexrJi. Kiir. SrJimett., vol. ii., I 

 recently had to form a critical opinion as to his species Pobjonnnatiis 

 sa/iphinis, pp. 22-23, pi. xlvii., figs. -ia-b. The following, for which I 

 am indebted to Mr. Sich, is a translation of the description of Meigen's 

 insect : — 



PoJyommafns sapphh'iifi. — Above shining azure-blue, with white- and black- 

 chequered fringes; beneath, ash-grey, with black eye-spots; the forewings at the base 

 unspotted, the hindwings with orange-yellow marginal spots ( c? ) (Eapers Schmett., i., 

 pi. 55, fig- 2, bellarguH var.). This butterfly is usually considered as an aberration 

 of the i of the previous one ; I cannot decide whether this is correct or not. I find it 

 in my collection, and there is doubtless a round dozen of them in the Baumhauer 

 collection, but all t? s ; I have not yet seen a ? . The upperside is perfectly 



