NOTES ON COLLECTING. 275 



variation of the smaller Butterflies, the overhauling of these being an 

 occupation that can be carried on without very much exertion, and 

 being, therefore, one of the most congenial methods of collecting in the 

 daytime during the phenomenally hot weather of the last month. 

 Poluo)iimatt(s icarus and UiDiiicia phlaeas were the insects to which the 

 greater part of my time was devoted, and interesting series of both 

 were obtained. Of P. icanis the forms known as icarimis, candiope, 

 mixta, iiH'lanoioxa and fieiiiiarciiata were, as usual, fairly numerous, but 

 a more interesting fact was the occurrence of several examples of the 

 form in which the 1st submedian spot is united by a black streak to 

 the 1st marginal chevron, of the hindwings. In one of these the 

 mark is complete on the left wing, and incomplete on the right, 

 while in two others, the mark appears on one wing only, one of these 

 latter being further remarkable in that the normal hindwing, though 

 perfectly formed, is only about ^ the size of the other. 



Among other interesting P. iearns I might mention one of the 

 (llu)iievnta form, in which the spots on both fore- and hindwings are 

 closely clustered round the discoidal, and which also exhibits the 

 characters of ab. )iielanntoxa (forewing) and ab. costajimcta (hindwing), 

 the streaks in both cases being very short, owing to the approximation 

 of the spots. 



On August 18th I captured a very fine underside ubsoleta 

 variety of P. icants, a freshly emerged ^ , which may be described 

 briefly as follows : — Discoidals and marginal lunules present on all 

 wings. Forewings : basal spots absent, 4 only of the submedian spots 

 present, and these well out against the margin. Hindwings : basal 

 spots represented by 2 white specks containing traces of black (with a 

 lens). 6th submedian spot present, the remainder of the submedian 

 series absent, or represented by white dots not clearly distinguishable 

 from the ground colour. 



The Hnuiicia phlaeas are, if anything, more interesting than the P. 

 icarus. On August 12th I had the good fortune to take a fine male 

 specimen of the ab. alba, Tutt, commonly known as ab. schmidtii, and 

 on the same day a specimen with pear shaped spots in the forewings. 

 Three or four of the " brassy " form known as ab. intermedia, Tutt, 

 were also taken. 



A very noticeable feature of this year's R. jMaeas has been the large 

 number of suffused forms, due, no doubt, to the heat. Quite a large 

 proportion of my captures have been of the form described by Tutt as 

 ab. iiiitia, and one or two distinctly ab. s»//)/.srt. These extreme suffused 

 forms are not tailed as in ab. elens, though many typical /i. phlaeas and 

 ab. initia, with pronounced tails, were taken. In size my specimens 

 vary from 24mm. to 36mm. (ab. major, Tutt). The spots are 

 minute in one or two, but in the majority well-marked and in 

 a few very large and prominent. An interesting capture was a 

 specimen of the ab. hasalipuncta, Tutt, with an extra spot in the 

 discal cell towards the base. Several others have extra spots in the 

 forewings : — (1) between the outer discal spot and the two normal 

 spots beyond it; (2j between the last-mentioned spots and the margin; 

 (3) one has traces of a spot between the inner discal spot and the inner 

 margin. This last form does not appear to be mentioned by Tutt, and 

 I would suggest the varietal name addenda for it. In one specimen 

 these extra spots appear on the underside and are united with the spots 



