44 [Fobruavy, 



in which the eggs were laid in captivity sufficiently long to determine 

 this point. 



I find in " Le Naturaliste" for 1889, a paper by M. P. Chretien on 

 the life-history of Nemophora Panzerella, by which it appears that he 

 had determined that that species pierced the succulent stems for ovi- 

 position, thus anticipating Dr. Wood's and my own observations in 

 Micropteryx. He also appears to be well acquainted with the larva of 

 viridella on the ground, but had not determined its oviposition. His 

 account of Nemophora shows that its larva leaves the egg-nidus at 

 once, adding much force to our surmise that that is the case with 

 viridella. 



Firbank, Hereford : 



January, 1892. 



NOTES CONCERNING CERTAIN LOCAL BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



BY HERBERT GOSS, F.L.S., &c. 



Melitjea Athalia. — I have taken it freely in various woods in East Sussex. 

 In 1868, I found it in a clearing in one of these woods in such plenty that I netted 

 over sixty specimens in an hour, frequently securing five or six at one stroke of the 

 net from the flowers of Ewphorbia amygdaloides. This was on the 3rd of June, and 

 in the following year it was in equal plenty from the 8th to the 12th ; but in 1875 it 

 was not fully out until the 22nd of June, and was rather later still in 1885 and 1891. 

 It occurs most commonly in the open spaces where the trees and underwood have 

 been cut down two or three years before. In all the woods in which I have taken 

 it, Melampyrum pratense grows abundantly, and, no doubt, serves as the food-plant 

 of the larva. I have frequently seen the butterfly alight on the flowers of this plant, 

 and also on those of Ajuga reptans, Lychnis flos-cuculi, and the woodspurge already 

 mentioned. In one wood, Lathynis Nissolia, a local vetch, is plentiful in some 

 places, but I never saw Athalia settle on it. I never found it in any wood in the 

 same spot in two successive years. The metropolis, as Mr. Tress Beale recorded, is 

 changed every year. When caught, the insect sometimes feigns death by closing 

 the wings and contracting the legs, as Mr. Beale says, but this is by no means its 

 invariable practice ; sometimes it is lively enough in the net. It often sits upon 

 flowers with the fore-wings laid back over the hind-wings. Its time of emergence, as 

 in other species of this genus, depends on the weather in the early spring. I have 

 taken one or two as early as May 30th, and as late as July 12th. 



Melit^a Cinxia.— I first saw this sp'^cies alive about the 8th of June, 1873, 

 in a small cove under the Coast Gruard Station at St. Lawrence, Isle of Wight. It 

 was far from common, and excessively local. In 1878, on the 20th of June, it 

 was plentiful at about a mile and a half west of the last named locality at the edge 

 of the cliffs, and on grassy places sloping down to the beach. At this time the 

 males were nearly over, but many of the females were still in good condition. The 



