NOTES ON COLLECTING. 153 



of course, quite fresh at this date, but almost the whole lower half of 

 the right forewing is of a pale shade of "dead gold." — George 

 Wheeler, 37, Gloucester Place, W. May SOt/i. 



Lycaknidi, etc., on the North Downs. — I have spent part of 

 three days this month on the downs at Gomshall, viz., the 14th, 21st 

 and 28th. On the first occasion the sun went in just as I arrived, and 

 I saw only one Poli/o)n>iiatiis icanis $ , and one Haiiicaris luciua J . 

 On the second day I had about half an hour's sunshine and found P. 

 icarus very abundant, the majority of the 2 s being much suffused 

 with blue ; the proportion of those which were blue to the edge of the 

 wings, the orange lunules being placed directly on the blue, was un- 

 usually large, the shades of blue were also very varied. One Ai/nades 

 theiis, 3 , was taken on this occasion (the 14th). Nixoniades tages, 

 Coenonympha pamphilus, and the two species of Eiididia were abundant. 

 On the 27th blue ? sof P. icarus were as common as before, and on that 

 day and the following, when I walked along the downs from Gomshall 

 to Dorking, A. thetis was in great abundance, many of the ^ s, especi- 

 ally in Denbies, were of the form puncta, Tutt, and most of the ? s 

 were suffused, many of them broadly, with blue. Both at Gomshall and 

 Dorking I took examples with blue disc and the rest of the wings as 

 black as in ab. urania, Gerh., but differing from this form by the 

 presence of small orange lunules on the hindwing, which are absent in 

 Gerhard's figure. I also took both J and $ A. thetis without basal 

 spots on the forewing, and a $ of the ab. addenda, Tutt. One of the 

 blue 2 s of P. icarus was pronouncedly of the tnelanoto.ra form, and of 

 two 3 s which I casually took, one was completely and the other 

 almost of the icarimis form. On each of the other days I had walked 

 over the downs from Horsley, and on the 14th I took on the north 

 side of the downs Brentlns euphmsyne, Hainearis Incina, Eiicldoe carda- 

 mines, Pieris napi, P. rapae, liionicia pJdaeas and Celastrina argiolits. 

 Both on the 21st and the 28th I took a single specimen of Aricia 

 medon at Gomshall, and on each occasion specimens of Callophrys rubi 

 were noted, as also of N. tayes, whilst Hesperia malvae appeared for the 

 first time on the 28th, though I had taken it at Brasted as early as 

 April 27th.— Id. 



e^ClENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Stray Notes from Ceylon. — Variation of Delias eucharis. — 

 This is believed to be very constant in colouring ; on the upperside it 

 is plain white in the male and blackish-white in the female, the under 

 surface of the hindwing is very handsome, being brilliant chrome- 

 yellow on the disc and with crimson marginal spots. It is universally 

 esteemed as a typical unpalatable insect, and certainly in many of its 

 habits has the characteristics of one. It is very abundant, is seldom, 

 so far as my observations go, attacked by birds, and it frequently rests 

 for long periods on the upper surface of a broad green leaf, such as 

 Calladiion, where its striking under surface makes it very conspicuous. 

 The larva feeds on the tulip tree {sitriya) which has yellow fiowers, 

 which become tipped with red when fading, and the butterfly is very 

 difficult to detect when settled on the leaves of this tree. When 

 studying Mimicry I collected a considerable number to note if there was 

 any variation in a protected butterfly, the results somewhat surprised 



