CURRENT NOTES. 



217 



(apparently Noctuid) larva, and make off with it. The sparrows hunt 

 under eaves in the most persistent way, and everything that moves by 

 day is pounced on at once. On the other hand, species that maintain 

 themselves best in London are those whose larvse and imagines are 

 both night-feeders, or otherwise night-flying species whose larvae are 

 internal feeders, or in other ways well-hidden. Ivy feeders (on walls 

 near houses) are among the most abundant. — J. W. Tutt, 119, West- 

 combe Hill, S.E. Juhj 12th, 1908. 



W" AR I AT ION . 



Remarkable aberration of Melanippe sociata. — I have to record 

 the capture of a strange aberration of M. sociata about a mile-and-a- 

 half from Claygate, at about the centre of a triangle made by Claygate, 

 Cobham, and Oxshott, at about 5 p.m. on June 8th, a very sunny day, 

 in a small clearing in the middle of the pinewoods. It was on Hight, 

 and at first I thought it was a specimen of Tamuira atrata, but soon 

 found that it was Melanippe sociata. The left half of the specimen, 

 fore- and hindwings, is almost normal, except that the hindwing is 

 rather blotchy ; the right half brown-black, absolutely free from 

 markings on both fore- and hindwings, although, in the former, the 

 discoidal spot is seen distinctly, and the black of the hindwing shades 

 off to a slighty lighter tint towards the base. — H. C. Phillips, F.R.C.S. 



Amphidasys betularia ab. doubledayaria at Blackheath. — It 

 may be worth recording that, on June 8rd this year, I caught a pair 

 of Ainphidasi/s betularia ab. (lonhledai/aria, in cop., on some palings at 

 Blackheath ; the female subsequently laid some eggs, which have since 

 hatched. — Stanley Edwards, F.Z.8., F.L.S., 15, St. German's Place, 

 Blackheath. Jul,/ 22ud, 190b. 



CURRENT NOTES. 



When our little book on British Butterjiies was published in 1896, 

 we unfortunately overlooked the life-history of the summer brood of 

 Ci/aniris seniiar;ius, published some ten years earlier by Mr. Brabant 

 of Cambrai {Le Naturaliste, 1886), but our attention was called to the 

 omission directly our book had gone through press, by the further 

 publication {Bull. Soc. Knt. France, 1896), of a short paper on the 

 same subject by the same observer. During the last twelve months 

 we have noted in our chapter on " Family Habits of Lycjenid Larvfe " 

 {Nat. Hist. Brit. Lep., ix., p. 73), the fact that the larva hybernated 

 in the 3rd larval instar, and further (p. 74) on the development of 

 " forwards " among the summer larvje, producing a more or less complete 

 partial double-brood. In May this year Dr. Chapman exhibited at one 

 of the South London Entomological Society's meetings, fullfed hyber- 

 nating larvae of this species that he had brought through the winter, and 

 which had pupated in due course. Mr. Frohawk now {Kntout., July, 

 1908) gives an outline of this winter (larva-hybernating) brood, so that 

 the general details of the two broods of the species are pretty well-known. 

 Mr. Frohawk's remark that "hitherto the hfe-history of L. acis has 

 remained a blank to British lepidopterists," must be taken cum tjrano, 

 as most advanced British lepidopterists have certainly known for a 

 long time the details published by Mr. Brabant 22 years ago. The 

 fact remains that the British have been late in the field to rear this 



