NOTES ON COLLECTING. 



257 



Humphrey, took ten in one afternoon. Neither the var. hclice nor 

 Coliaii hyalc has been noticed. — Joseph Anderson, Chichester, Sussex. 

 September 10th, 1913. 



Melanargia iapygia var. cleanthe in the Hautes-Alpes. — On our 

 way to Digne this year, my wife and I, acting on the advice of Mr. H. 

 Rowland-Brown, stayed a night (June 29th) at Rosans, in the Hautes- 

 Alpes, with the object of searching for Melanargia iapygia war. cleanthe. 

 Our search was successful, and we took a nice little series ; but the 

 insect had clearly been flying for some time, and so many specimens 

 were badly worn that we set free nearly half of our captures. Of those 

 we kept, about half-a-dozen only were quite perfect. The species was 

 flying with M. galatea over hay-fields, but it was easy to distinguish the 

 two species on the wing. Var. deanthe is rather a strong flyer, but we 

 did not find it difficult to capture. Our specimens show little variation. 

 —J. N. Keynes (D.Sc, F.E.S.), Cambridge. September 12f/t, 1913. 



Foodplant of Pyrameis oardui. — On August 16th, 1913, between 

 Bourg d'Aru and St. Christophe, in the Veneon Valley, the imagines of 

 P. cardui, in fresh condition, were on the wing. I noticed on plants 

 of an Erynijium, that I take to be campestris, growing on the slopes of 

 the wayside, empty tents that seemed unlikely to be anything but those 

 of P. cardiii larvae. After some searching I found one of these occupied 

 by a belated larva of P. cardui that had just entered its last instar. This 

 larva I fed up on thistle till it was fuUfed, when it sickened and died, 

 as a result doubtless of being kept in a closed tin. P. cardui eats a 

 large selection of Compnsitae, and has also been recorded on nettle, 

 Ecliium and Mallow. It is probably a proof of my narrow reading, that 

 I do not remember seeing a record of it on Enjngium. It seems, how- 

 ever, that I may assume such records do not abound so as to render 

 another undesirable. The suggestion may be very unorthodox botani- 

 cally, but one cannot help imagining that P. cardni recognises in 

 Krgngium some composite rather than umbelliferous characters, beyond 

 the prickly nature, which is reminiscent of thistles. The presence of 

 prickles would hardly attract the butterfly, and the larva no doubt 

 demands a strictly digestive test. — T. A. Chapman, (M.D.). September 

 2'Ind, 1913. 



Newspaper Entomology. — I am enclosing the following specimen 

 of " newspaper entomology." I do not know if Lamarck did separate 

 Xeniatocera from other Diptera, but I am pretty certain he did not class 

 them with the Arachnidae. Also I do not think that entomologists 

 would endorse the statement that "at the worst he (the " daddy long- 

 legs ") is a harmless nuisance. 



" ' Daddy long-legs.' — An invasion of Suburban Gardens. — ' Daddy 

 long-legs ' has never been regarded as a pest, but in the suburban 

 garden just now he is something of a nuisance. For some 

 reason or other, and the naturalist declines to hazard an explana- 

 tion, 'Daddy long-legs' is invading gardens and summer-houses 

 and buzzing across window-panes in unusual force. The children 

 regard him with more approval than others of his tribe, but 

 familiarity is breeding contempt. ' Daddy long-legs ' is one of the 

 species Arachnida, which means that he is a spider. At one time he 

 was classed as an insect, but Lamarck separated him from them, and 

 now he is catalogued along with scorpions and mites. His six pairs of 

 legs, long body, and wings, deprive him of much resemblance to the 



