CURRENT NOTES. 277 



occasion I saw a male toying with a female in the air, both going round 

 in circles, the male beneath. Thinking to make a double capture I 

 cautiousl_y approached, but when within striking distance they just rose 

 out of reach, kept up their evolutions, sailed with the wind to a safe 

 distance, and came down nearer the earth, but did not settle. I 

 approached again and again with the same result, and after following 

 them over three fields I had to admit myself beaten. J'icn'fi rapae and 

 Poli/onniiatiis icanis {ale.ris'j proved themselves absolute pests, for as soon 

 as a ( '. Ill/all' settled on a flower, one or other of them drove it oft". On 

 many occasions, however, there is no doubt, by the action of male /'. 

 rapae, that they mistook the (.'. In/ale for a female P. rapae on account 

 of its yellow coloui', and vice-versa, I have seen a male ('. hi/ale when 

 hunting for a female, hover and dart down at a settled /'. rapae. There 

 Avas one large patch of lucerne a mass of flower, and strange to say 

 during the whole of my stay I did not see a single ( '. /n/ale visit it. They 

 preferred instead to fly over ground where it bad been cut, or where it 

 was only partly grown, and almost invariably settled on dandelion 

 flowers to feed. I have always found C. eilasa feeding on lucerne, 

 whenever it has been available. — C. W. Colthrup, 127, Barry Road, 

 East Dulwich. Octuber Srd, 1911. 



CURRENT NOTES. 



The Kiitoiiiolui/ieal Xeirs for July has two valuable lepidopterological 

 papers — one by J. R. Haskin and F. Gwinnell, junr., on Theela (?) clytie, 

 T. leda, and T. ines — giving a careful comparative summary of the 

 descriptions of the three species, going critically into the details of 

 each, and finally coming to the conclusion that they are only slight 

 variations of the same species, a conclusion with which we are heartily 

 in agreement. — G. T. B-B. 



In the same Magazine, Dr. J. B. Smith has a most useful paper 

 on the N. American species of the genus Acronijeta, wherein he 

 modifies some of the views he expressed in his Monograph of 1898, 

 though he by no means altogether approves of Hampson's conclusions 

 in his catalogue of 1909.— G. T. B-B. 



From the advertisement pages of the August number of the 

 Zeitsehrift far iri!isenf<chaftliche Iiise/itoibioldfjie, we extvaci the following 

 very interesting item in the distribution of one of our British species 

 ot Rhopalocera : — " I'apilio maehaon, Puppen aus Schottland, schone 

 dunkelgelbe Falter ergebend, 1 Stuck 0,70 Mk. — A. M. Schmidt, 

 109, Whipps Cross Road, Leytonstone, N.E. (England)." 



Mr. Eustace R. Bankes, having been ordered complete rest by his 

 doctors, in conse(|uence of a severe nervous breakdown, hopes that his 

 correspondents will kindly refrain from writing to him, or sending 

 him insects for identification, etc. 



Ji^EVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Synopsis, Catalogue and Bibliography of North American 

 Thysanoptera, with descriptions of New Spf.cies ; 56 pp. and 

 pi. i.-vi., by Dudley Moulton. — This useful paper forms Technical 

 Series No. 21 of the publication of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, and is publiahed for the guidance not 



