HOW COLIAS KDUSA WINTERS. 253 



its native haunts C. edum undergoes no period of lethargy at all com- 

 parable yviih what we generally associate with the term hybernation. The 

 great fatality from one week's cold is, however, in the face of Mr. Buckler's 

 evidence, likely to be as much due to a wrong method of treatment as 

 to the cold, unless the latter was very exceptional for the time of 

 year ; but that this is the final end of all British larvfe during the 

 winter is almost certain. 



If, as I have attempted to show, these are the habits in Britain of the 

 progeny of our immigrating stock, it becomes more evident that the 

 failure of C. edum to live through our winter is less due to the cold 

 than to the prolonged period of time through which the larva has to 

 pass — often it would be from September to iVpril — and that it has no 

 habit ingrained in it in any stage which would enable it to become 

 more or less lethargic for so great a period of time. A remarkable 

 statement by that marvellous observer, Mr. -J. .J. Walker, occurs in 

 the Ent. Mo. Mag., xxiv., p. 170, where he says : — " In this genial 

 climate (Gibraltar), some of the butterflies continue on the wing all the 

 year round, and there is scarcely a sunny day in any month on which 

 specimens of ... . Colias ediisa .... may not be met with in 

 sheltered places." 



The sum of the evidence forthcoming at present may lead us to 

 doubt whether, in the true sense of the word, Colias edum hybernates 

 at all, and this is largely borne out by Mr. Frohawk's statement 

 above. It passes, probably, the coldest period of the Mediterranean 

 Avinter in the larval stage, the larvse being in what we may term the 

 " nibbling " condition, never wholly dormant, feeding up rapidly in 

 early spring, and producing a brood of imagines at a period of the 

 year which, in Britain, is usually most inclement, and totally unsuited 

 for the existence in any stage of such an insect as Colias edasa. 



A Day at Lymington Salterns after Coleoptera. 



By FRANK BOUSKELL, FES. 



This well-known locality, which we see so often mentioned in 

 Canon Fowler's British Coleoptera, seems to have been very little 

 worked during the last 10 years, if the records in our magazines are a 

 fair criterion of what has been done. 



Lymington makes an excellent headquarters for working the 

 Salterns, the New Forest and the Isle of Wight, a sufficient variety of 

 ground to suit anyone. The train and ferry service is good, and 

 cheap accommodation can easily be obtained, even when Brockenhurst 

 is full of our London brethren at holiday-time. 



On .lune 2nd, 1895, a fine sunny day, we made a start for the 

 Salterns about 9 a.m. On our way down the lane leading to the sea, 

 the lane by the w^ay being well worth sweeping, Tcleiihonis fuscus, in 

 one spot, was out in hundreds, crawling up the grass stems and other 

 herbage. Last year in the same place we took only four. Oedemera 

 nobilis, with its brilliant green glistening in the sunlight, was fairly 

 on the wing, settling apparently only on the yellow Raminndus 

 bulbosn,^, and another allied species ; Meloe pmscarabeus, was picked out 

 of the herbage, and many common Telephoridae, Cuculionidae, etc., 

 found their way into the net, but tlie Saltern things were what we 

 came for, so we must proceed, 



