NOTES FROM THE WYE VALLEY. 53 



Mysia oblongoguttata, L, ab. nigroguttata, n. ab. {with plau). 



By HEREWARD C. DOLLMAN, F.E.S. 

 This is a striking aberration inasmuch as the elytra, usuallj' quite 

 unmarked with black in this species, exhibit six well-defined ivory- 

 black spots. The two dark longitudinal lines on the thorax that are 

 sometimes observable in normal specimens are in this aberration very 

 strong, being unusually broad and black. The clubs of the antennae, 

 the femora wholly, and the tibiae in part, are also black. 



In contoiu-, sculpture, and size, the specimen does not depart from the 

 normal. The clypeus, the front of the head, the eyes, the first joint and club of 

 the antennas, and the apical portion of the last joint of the maxillary palpi b!ack, 

 with the base of the head (narrowly), and the other joints of the antenna) and 

 maxillary palpi reddish-testaceous ; thorax with the broad white borders 

 narrowly margined with black (from posterior to anterior angles), and the dark 

 longitudinal lines very broad and black; elytra light testaceous-brown, with the 

 margins somewhat lighter, with the usual irregular light longitudinal lines and 

 oblong spots, but. each of the latter marked within with a large well-defined jet 

 black centre ; legs, with the except'on of the apical half of the tibise and the 

 tarsi, which are dark reddish-brown, black. 



The type specimen beaten from I'iniis sylrestris at Oxshott, Surrey, 

 on Julv 4th, 1911. 



Notes from the Wye Valley: Lepidoptera in 191 1. 



By J. F. BIRD. 

 The semi-tropical summer last year will, no doubt, be long 

 remembered, and I do not think I need say more than that we, in 

 common with the rest of England, sorely felt the want of rain. The 

 whole country looked scorched up, the leaves fell off' the trees, and not 

 only did garden plants suffer, but many hardy wild floAvers and weeds 

 of the countryside shrivelled up and gave up the struggle for existence. 

 The long spell of fine and hot weather was responsible for the second 

 appearance of a number of species of Lepidoptera, and also one or two 

 cases of even a third emergence occurred. Some rather dwarfed 

 individuals were noticed, which is hardly to be wondered at considering 

 the effects of the weeks of drought, but on the whole most appeared to 

 be of average expanse of wing. 



Before referring to some of the insects met with during 1911, I 

 may mention that I recorded in the Wye Valley last year 262 species 

 of Macro-lepidoptera (counting larv;p), or nearly one- third of those to 

 be found in Britain. These notes, unless otherwise specified, will 

 relate to the parish of 8t. Briavels in Gloucestershire. 



DicRNi. — Pieris hrassicac, though common, was not unusually 

 so; while the two smaller "whites," /'. ra/iae and P. napi, were 

 exceptionally abundant, especially during their second appearance. 

 I noticed that many of the second brood of P. napi were strongly 

 marked and exhibited one or tw^o extra spots between the veins on 

 the hindwings, the result, as I have previously noticed in the Wye 

 Valley, of a hot summer. Kuchloi' {Antltovliaiis) cardainines was fairly 

 common and many larvse were found feeding on the seed-pods of 

 Hesperis iiiatrnnalis, which seems rather a favourite garden food-plant 

 oi the species. Goneptenjx rhawni was plentiful in the spring and also 

 after the emergence of "the fresh brood. Bitlnjs (jiiercits was more 

 March 15th, 1912. 



