■1884.1 87 



iiarker brown. There are absolutely no markings beyond a small 

 3lack spot on each side the frontal plate, and the tubercles, frontal 

 .ind anal plates, and the almost imperceptible spiracles, of a darker 

 iihade of the ground-colour. Ventral surface and prologs uniformly 

 )f the ground-colour of the dorsal area, the anterior legs ringed with 

 i darker shade. 



I Huddersfield : Angust ^th, 1884. 



! Note on LyccBna Avion. — I feel quite certain that the haunt of L. Avion at 



Bolthead must be looked upon as a thing of the past. I visited the old familiar 



; |)ot twice this year (28th June and 5th July), without seeing a single specimen. 



] it is now more than twenty years since I first became acquainted with L. Avion : my 



I irst record in " The Entomologist " of my capture of 36 in one afternoon is in vol. 



I i, p. 295, and when I look back and remember the spot then and what it is now, it 



' } no wonder they have disappeared. When I first visited the place, the fern, furze, 



nd thyme held full possession of the slopes towards the sea — all, comparatively, 



; ave gone ; the farmer who rents the ground has annually burnt the furze, &c., first 



r jie spot and then another ; this, no doubt, is the principal cause, but we must also 



ike into consideration the great assistance the elements have given to their exter- 



lination during the past seven years. 



On the 17th June, 1865, when I captured the above-named species the wild 

 lyrae was in full bloom, the fragrance of the flowers, and the aromatic odour 

 rising from running over the plants, made a lasting impression on me ; many females 

 watched that day, and some since, flitting about depositing their eggs on the 

 owers on the thyme : but now all is changed, for on the 5th instant I could have 

 irried all the flowers of the thyme I saw at Bolthead in my waistcoat pockets and 

 ^und no inconvenience from the quantity. Although the eggs are laid on the 

 owers of the thyme and the larvse feed upon them till the first moult, it is quite 

 jrtain that it is not their food -plant, but what the food-plant is I am not prepared 

 ) state, yet I strongly suspect it is one of the small trefoils or a vetch. 



I know L. Avion has been on the wing, for I have had the pleasure of seeing 

 ine specimens taken during the first week in July by a gentleman who had visited 

 olthead, but gave it up in disgust ; he will not at present give the precise locality, 



. itr he says the place is so small, that one greedy collector would exterminate the 

 .)ecie8 in a couple of seasons. — G. C. Bignell, Stonehouse : Juli/ 2bth, 1884. 



Vanessa Atalanta and uvticce in- Wellington, New Zealand. — According to a 

 mimunication from Mr. T. W. Kirk to the Wellington Philosophical Society {cf. 

 ^ns. andProc. New Zealand Institute, vol. xvi, p. 550) several examples of these 



„; ij>mmon English butterflies were observed by him in 1881 in the Wellington Botanic 



^ gardens, having, no doubt, been imported with plants. — Eds. 



Pvotective mimicvy in Avgynnis Selene, 8(c. — Much interest has been taken of 

 '^ in observing the wonderful way in which the markings of insects tend to conceal 



II in their native haimts, and it has often been remai-ked how insects will choose 

 'heir resting place the objects which blend best with their own markings. 



