TIIK BLUE BTITTERFLTKS OF A KK.NTISU ITILLSIDK, ol 



in tangled confusion. There, a charming race of I'lclxiiis ,i,'t/iiii lives. 

 When we first captured specimens, we thought they were /'. arijKs, and 

 that we had added another species to the British list. But Mr. 

 Nicholson, of Lewes, recognised them as /'. rtc//"", in spite of their 

 heing so nmch finer and larger than any of the heath-grown specimens. 

 We wonder who will add 1'. ari/iis to the the British list; it is so like 

 /'. a(';io)i that it can easily he overlooked by the smartest collector ; it is 

 so widely distributed and so abundant on the Continent, that it can 

 hardly fail to exist here. 



Lavipidrs hiictird has not been known to wander on the Kentish 

 chalk hills, nor are their warm southern slopes yet known to hide 

 Kcerex an/iadt's, but the woods produce Tlwda ii--alhuin, Xcji/ii/nis 

 bctulai' and Z. (jiwrcus, and the slopes swarm with Skippers. The 

 clover fields that run along between the hills and the river sometimes 

 teem with < 'alias hijale and ('. I'tlii.sa, whilst the woodside in spring is 

 never wathoiit (rnmiitrry.r rhamiil. In short, forty-six species of our 

 P>ritish Rhopalocera are to be captured on these banks, and in the 

 woods behind them, within a distance of five miles, and the number 

 of moths is legion, indeed, no day's enjoyment can be better ob- 

 tained, no more delightful scenery met with, no more interesting 

 specimens captured, than on the breezy downs, through which the 

 l\Iedway cuts in its course between Maidstone and Rochester. 



The Mallophaga or Biting Lice. ' 



From the time of Eleazar Albin's Xatnral tiistori/ of Knt/li.sh 

 Insi'cts, 1720, the Mallophaga have interested a long series of the 

 most eminent entomologists, including Linne, De Geer, Fabricius, 

 Schrank, Stephens, etc. The insects are very small, live externally 

 parasitic on the bodies of birds and mammals, are wingless, have 

 l)iting mouth-parts, and differ from true lice by not sucking the blood 

 of their victims. The average length of tliese insects is somewhat 

 less than one-tenth of an inch, and they feed on the epidermal pro- 

 ducts (feathers, hair, etc.) of their hosts. 



As early as lOGH, Redi mentioned one of these insects, now known 

 as Trinotim luridiiin, as the "louse of the teal;"' whilst another 

 species, Li/x'vnis hantlus, is mentioned as " Pulex columba' majoris." 

 In IKIH, Nitzsch compiled a memoirf which presents the essential 

 features of the classification of the group now used ; but the monu- 

 mental work;!: on the group is (iiebel's monograph, although to the 

 student, IMaget's worklj is the most valuable treatise, the uncoloured 

 figures and descriptions lieing very good indeed. 



The MALLOPHA(iA have an incomplete metamorphosis. The eggs 

 are glued to the barbs of the feiithers of their hosts, and the 



* New MallopJuifia: irith spcri((l rc/rmicc to n collection imuh' j'roni maritime 

 liinU of the Bail "J ^lonterti, Califoniid. J!y Vernon L. Kellogg. (16 pages and 

 XV. plates. Published by The Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto, Cali- 

 fornia. ISOfV). 



: " Die Faniilien and Gattungen der Thierinsekten als ein Prodroinnsi XaMii- 

 geshichte derselben." — <ieniiai\'< Magazin der Kiituiiiolo;iie, vol. iii, Isl^. 



; Iiixecta Epizoa, die auf Sdtigethiereii mid ]lUielii nrhittarotzenden Insekteu, naeh 

 Chr. L. Xitzsch'ii Nachlatmhedrheilcl. mil w. 'I'a/ebi. etc. 1874. Leipzig. 



II Lea PedieuUnes Kxsoi Monoiini/iliiiiiic, xol. !.. Texte, vol. ii., Plane-lies, 18H0, 

 Supplement, 1H8>, Leyden, 



