228 THE entomologist's record. 



been cc^mmoner tlian the latter species. The first specimens oi edusa 

 which were British fed appeared in the Isle of Wight on July 26th, the 

 appearances being pretty general all over its area of distribution by the 

 end of the month. As was to be supposed, the south coast has been 

 its great home, but it is doubtful whether any English couuties have 

 not been visited by the welcome stranger. Even in the heart of London 

 it has occurred; and a little lad brought me a fine female from his 

 back garden (a little paved court some 12 by 9 ft.), where it was 

 resting on a wall, the house being at Star Corner, the central point of 

 the Bermondsey slums and the great home of costermongers in general. 

 Perhaps var. helice has been most common on the south coast. Some 

 two to three dozen specimens were exhibited at the last meeting of the 

 Entomological Society of London, captured near Bournemouth by one 

 collector, two of the specimens being strongly tinged with yellow, and 

 intermediate between the type and extreme form. Mr. Hodges records 

 above two dozen from the neighbourhood of Freshwater in the Isle of 

 Wight, including also some intermediate forms, and other collectors 

 have been equally successful in obtaining considerable numbers, so that 

 those whose collections have come into existence since 1877, and who 

 leave gaps in their cabinets for rarities, which they sometimes never 

 fill, should at any rate be able to fill up at least one of these empty 

 spaces. Hyale has been in no way so generally distributed nor so 

 abundant, although individual collectors have sometimes caught fair 

 numbers. These, however, have been chiefly captured in the eastern 

 and south-eastern counties, and the records from more westerly localities 

 are decidedly rare. The exhibition of var. helice mentioned above, 

 comprised also some hundreds of type specimens which had been 

 sacrificed, whilst there were only six hyale. Mr. Hodges, at Fresh- 

 water, did not see one. In Kent, Messrs. AUbuary, Knight, Wilson 

 and others got fair numbers ; but s.ill the fact remains that hyale was 

 very much more restricted in its range, and rarer than its congener. Of 

 other varieties, Mr. Grifliths records a female with typical wings one 

 side, and helice wings the other. Mr. Parry one with a silvery border, 

 I cannot imagine quite what this can be like ; and Mr. Carrington had 

 heard of a helice with green hind wings. As helice is often described 

 as greenish white, and the records in the Field are not generally 

 made by specialists, probably this latter was nothing much out of tlie 

 common way. The normal females vary very much in the shape and 

 size of the yellow spots in the black band, and there has hardly been 

 a large exhibit in which I have not noticed a female so devoid of these 

 spots, that it has been placed among the males owing to the absence of 

 this character. On the other hand, some have the spots very large 

 and well developed. In both sexes the band itself is subject to great 

 variation, sometimes being of an intense black, at others quite ruddy, 

 both being frequently much powdered with light scales. The central 

 spot in the fore wing varies considerably, both in size and shape, whilst 

 the pale central spot in the hind wing is very variable in tint. The 

 width of the border also varies considerably, and some specimens have 

 a tendency to throw off dark prolongations towards the centre of ^ the 

 wing, from the middle of the band of the anterior wings. But it is 

 probable that most of the best varieties will have been caught by 

 comparative youngsters, and will not be recorded in the magazines. 



