1885] -^11 



Colias Edusa, Sfc, at Portland. — Miev some years of scarcity, Colias Edusa 

 seems this season to be once more comparatively plentiful, at all events, in this 

 locality. The first specimen (a lovely Helice, apparently just out of the pupa) was 

 taken on the Chesil Beach on the evening of August 17th, and during the following 

 week, my wife and I obtained a good series in the lucerne-patches on the summit of 

 the Island, which were literally alive with Pyrameis cardui, Lt/ccena Icarus, Satyrus 

 Megcera, and other common butterflies. Some of the females of Edusa are the 

 finest I have ever seen, one in particular having the yellow spots in the black border 

 almost obliterated. On August 24th I caught a good male specimen of C. Hyale, the 

 first I have seen alive since 1872. 



Sphinx convolvuli has also been commoner than usual, as, during the past week, 

 I have taken eight specimens at petunia flowers, although the weather has been 

 anytliing but favourable for collecting. On the rocks under the Yerne Fort, where 

 a little shelter could be obtained from the boisterous west and south-west gales 

 which have prevailed here, almost without intermission, for the last fortnight, the 

 pretty Heliophohus hispidus has occurred in fair numbers, sitting quietly on the 

 grass and herbage after dark, and allowing itself to be readily boxed. — J. J. Walker, 

 H.M.S. " Cherub," Portland : September lUh, 1885. 



Lepidoptera on stone walls and rocks. — During a visit to the north-west last 

 autumn I was much interested in observing the insects which rest by preference on 

 the rocks and stone walls with which that district is so plentifully garnished. 



At Kendal, Folia chi was to be found commonly sitting on the stone walls, and 

 in many instances so posted, against ledges and inequalities, as to be fairly well con- 

 cealed, or, at any rate, only noticeable by those who looked for them, but on the 

 slopes of the Pennine hills, between Oldham and Huddersfield, where the original 

 grey or whitish colour of the stone walls has become totally changed by the constant 

 action of smoke from the cotton mills of the large towns, and the woollen mills of 

 the villages, this moth becomes so conspicuous that it may be seen fifty yards away, 

 and is, indeed, rather more noticeable than the wall itself. Here one would suppose 

 would be a grand opportunity for the development of the variety olivacea and other 

 dark forms, but no such alteration has taken place. I searched for hours for such 

 varieties, and found only one, and that by no means a striking one, although the 

 moth actually varied much in the dark markings on a tvhite ground. One specimen 

 I found on the blackened trunk of a tree, but their preference for walls was astonish- 

 ing, hardly one was to be found on the isolated rocks or rocky hill sides. 



On these rocky fragments, however, especially towards the tops of the hills, 



Oporahia filigrammaria was common, and charmingly variable, and from its grey 



colour would seem to be admirably adapted for concealment while at rest. But this 



was by no means the case. Every moth could be seen at a considerable distance. 



The glossy brightness of their fore-wings made them as distinctly visible on the dull 



grey rocks as though they had been white. Even those which were sitting on the 



heath required no searching for, they were quite visible. On another hill, where 



j there were no rocks, but plenty of stone walls, several specimens, larger and whiter 



i than those on the rocks, were found sitting on the hlaclcened ground, sheltered, hj 



slight inequalities. They might possibly have been passed over by a very careless 



j observer as glossy pebbles. 



