LIFE-HISTORIES. 237 



Wilkinson would allow me to exaiaiue a couple of examples of both 

 his reputed male and female S. micana, I should be pleased to report 

 upon them, and have no doubt that the mystery surrounding his 

 captures would be speedily solved. — Eustace R, Bankes, M.A., Norden, 

 Corfe Castle. September lOth, 1909. 



PoLYOMMATus sAPPHiRus, Meigen = P. escheri, Hubner. — There is 

 no doubt that the conclusion arrived at by Mr. Tutt concerning this 

 matter [ajitea p. 202) is correct. In the Stett. Ent. Ztg., xii., pp. 309- 

 10 (1851), Keferstein had already determined Polyommatus sapphirHs, 

 Meig., as synonymous with P. escheri, Hb., although the latter is 

 erroneously treated as a variety of Lycaena alexis (=L. icarm). Here 

 he writes : — 



Var. a.— Escheri, Fr., Hb., 799-800, 867-868 ? , Godart, suppl. i.-ii., pi. xi., 

 figs. 3-6, Bsd., pi. xii., figs. 4, 5D. 



Medon, Esp., tab., xxxii. (supp. viii.), fig. 1. Sapphirus,'^M.e\q,&a, tab. xlvii., 

 fig. 4. 



— Max Gillmer, 7, Elisabethstrasse, Cothen, Anhalt, Germany. 

 September l%th, 1909. 



:]aOTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Strange Egglaying of Arctia villica. — Yesterday, whilst search- 

 ing fir-trunks near here for Boarmia repandata, etc., I noticed a batch 

 of ova laid about 20 feet up, and, on climbing up, found that it was a 

 batch of ova of Arctia villica. Is not this a rather unusual position 

 for this insect to choose ? I have often found similar batches of ova 

 on leaves of various low plants, and once on a piece of slate lying on 

 the ground, but have never noticed them high up a tree-trunk before. 

 — Ernest A. Rogers, Kabul House, Teignmouth. July 2nd, 1909. 



EupiTHEciA fraxinata, Crewe. — As there is some use, as well as 

 pleasure, in verifying older records, I report that I found eggs of this 

 species not uncommonly on Coriaria myrtifolia at Vernet-les-Bains in 

 early May, 1909. The larvje from these were typical E. fraxinata, 

 long, slender, green, with a little yellowish on the well-marked lateral 

 flange, well-marked, that is, until being full-fed, the larva becomes 

 round and plump, and the purple-red anal patch, the remainder of a 

 red dorsal line being in doubtful evidence. Two moths emerged here, 

 one at the beginning, the other in the middle, of September ; they would 

 probably have come out earlier in the Pyrenees-Orientales. Milliere 

 records in the Iconographie, iii., p. Ill (1896), that he found these 

 larvae in June, 186B, on the same plant at Amelie-les-Bains (no great 

 distance from Vernet-les-Bains). The following is a description of 

 the larva : — 



Long and slender 18nim.-19mm. long (or even 21nun. when stretched), l"4mm. 

 wide, l'3mm. thick, the greater width due to a very pronounced lateral flange along 

 all the abdominal segments. Of a green colour, very difficult to see sometimes on the 

 food ; one larva was believed, for some minutes, to be somehow lost, though the scrap 

 of food-plant it was on was examined over and over again ; it was found by rubbing 

 and shaking it off. The head is rather paler ; the lateral flange has some yellow, more 

 evident towards the latter segments. On the dorsum of the last segment is a pink 

 patch involving most of its area. The abdominal segments appear to be divided 

 into five nearly equal subsegments, the two last faintly subdivided. The appearance 

 varies a good deal by attitude, and the 3rd and 4th subsegments seem, at 

 times, to be one large subsegment. Rather younger the yellow of lateral line is 

 nearly white. Yellow lateral line on the 1st and 2nd thoracic segments, and a very 



