100 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



I can only add that of all the Continental spedmens I have seen, 

 I have obtained none like the yellow and intermediate forms which we 

 catch in Devon, and often breed from eggs laid by British parents. 



The day-flying habits of the lAthimidac and of the FAichcliidae are 

 well-known. I have no doubt that this is their natural habit in the 

 warm countries they inhabit on the Continent, and to a large extent 

 is so here. The exigencies of our climate, however, may have modified 

 such habit, as it is well-known to have done in the case of several 

 Noctuid moths, which, like A/p-otis tritici, Hi/droecia nictitans and 

 others, occasionally give us traces of an old habit as they fly by day 

 from flower to floAver, a habit quite normal in the high Alps, where 

 the radiation by night is so great, that it soon produces a very low 

 temperature, and yet whose usual habit now in Britain is to Hy at 

 dusk, and come to our sugar, " weather and other circumstances 

 permitting." 



No one need fear facing the breeding of British CalUmnrpha hera. 

 The larvae are almost omnivorous, and dearly love dandelion and 

 other garden weeds. Hybernating them is the difficulty, but, hyberna- 

 tion over, they feed on strongly and pretty quickly to pupation. Their 

 hybernation includes feeding just a little when suitable Aveather occurs, 

 and hence they want care and attention. Given these, you can breed 

 C. Iii'i-a. A little bird over my shoulder whispers " or anything else." 



Coenonympha typhon and its varieties. * 



By F. J. BUCKELL, M.B., B.S.,Lond. 

 The sub-family Sati/rinae furnishes not a few perplexing puzzles to 

 the student of synonymy. Several causes conduce to this. (1) Many 

 of its species resemble one another to such an extent, as to render it 

 easy for an entomologist, who had no guide but the short and often 

 imperfect descriptions of the earliest authors, to suppose that the 

 butterfly which he was examining was one that he there found 

 described and named, although, as it afterwards turned out, it was an 

 entirely different species. As a consequence more than one insect was 

 known by the same name. (2) The Satyrids are an especially variable 

 lot ; the sexes generally differ a good deal, and often got distinct 

 names from the same author, as was the case with the Meadow Brown, 

 whose male Linne called ianira, and its female iurtma. (3) Many of 

 the earlier authors were not field-entomologists, and depended on 

 others for the specimens which they described or figured ; moreover 

 they not infrequently founded their description or figure on a very 

 small number of specimens — sometimes even on a single one ; others, 

 meeting with different forms, did not recognise their specific identity 

 with the insects already described or figured and named, and so 

 named these forms as independent species. Thus, the same species 

 received several different names, and this multiplication of names was 

 rendered more easy by the tendency of the varieties to form local 

 races. 



Among the British representatives of the sub-family, Erehia 

 epiphron and Coenonympha tjiphnn stand out as species whose synonymy 

 is pre-eminently difficult to disentangle. In the case of the former it 



[* A Paper read before the City of London Entomological and Natural History 

 Society, October 15th, 1895.] 



