54 THii; kntomologist's record. 



abundant than I have ever seen it. As I wished to obtain some ova I 

 watched one of the females which seemed to be ovipositing while 

 crawling up and down the twigs at the end of a low-hanging branch 

 of an oak. She kept her abdomen curved so as to feel along the bark, 

 and several times appeared to lay an egg below projections such as 

 buds or the base of smaller twigs. After she had flown to another part 

 of the tree I picked the twigs she had been on, bat was disappointed not 

 to find any ova, although I carefully examined with a pocket lense each 

 spot, where I thought I had seen one deposited. Several of these 

 butterflies forsook the tree-tops and were to be seen flying about and 

 settling on bracken, and a male netted on August 9th was flitting about 

 a hovel yard in the manner of l\ tear us and alighting on nettles and 

 other weeds. I also noticed one on a very hot day drinking on the wet 

 mud by the river-side. Ridiiicia p/daeaa swarmed everywhere and was 

 noticed on the wing right into October. I fancy there were three broods 

 during the year. On September 24th, 1 netted one a,h.')adiata 2 going 

 to the flowers in my garden, rolyonniiatus icarnti was also verj- plentiful, 

 and on several evenings I searched for aberrations among those 

 asleep on the stems of grass, etc., and the two best, both taken on August 

 7th, were (i) a ? ab. arena, and (ii) a <? with forewings of ordinary 

 colour, but bordered with a blue of slightly paler shade, and the hind- 

 wings with a marginal row of black spots. Cdastrina an/ioltis was 

 more in evidence during the summer than in the spring. In July I 

 met with several of the males on the heather. A search on ivy in the 

 autumn only produced one larva. A/iatiira iris. — During the summer 

 I believe I saw three of these butterflies on the wing, but not clearly 

 enough to say so for certain. However, I was presented with one by 

 a non-entomological neighbour of mine, who captured it in August, 

 1910, while it was fluttering on a window in her house. The specimen, 

 a female, is slightly asymmetrical, the wings on the left side being 

 rather smaller than those on the right. Poliii/nnia c-albuni. — I did not 

 see a single hybernated specimen in the spring, although I was on the 

 look-out for a female or two to send a corresf ondent, and, as luck 

 would have it, when the summer brood were on the wing I only saw 

 females when I was without my net. (If my correspondent reads this 

 it will explain why he received none from me.) On August 24th, 

 while paying a visit to my father at Tintern, I noticed one of the 

 autumn brood just emerged and clinging to an empty pupa-case, which 

 was attached to a wire for training creepers fixed on the side of a 

 window. A search among the hop-plants growing close by produced 

 several pupa? and one nearly full-fed larva. At/lais nrticae.— During 

 the scorching summer and the early autumn this butterfly frequently 

 entered the house and settled in odd corners as if to hybernate, but 

 after resting like this for a few days flew out again. One of these 

 visitors suddenly became lively one night (September 7th) and began 

 flying about our dining-room, and when it settled it did so on the 

 ceiling immediately above the lamp with wings displayed as if basking 

 in sunshine. I did not pay much attention to it at first, but it 

 suddenly struck me, when glancing up at the butterfly, that there was 

 something rather odd about it, so I bottled it. I afterwards found that 

 the two black spots on the forewings between veins 2 and 4 were 

 almost imperceptible. Vaneam in was again plentiful, but only two or 

 three specimens were seen of t'l/rameis atalanta and P. cardiii. The 



