RANDOM NOTES ON 1912. 235 



the total nnmber. Melanic specimens can be divided into smooth 

 dark forms with no irroratiou with pale scales, and those with pale 

 scales in more or less abundance ; the first-named form about teil per 

 cent, of all specimens. Some of the most extreme show a tendency 

 to have fringes paler than the ground colour of the wings, and three 

 or four exhibit a segregation of the darkest scales into the basal and 

 marginal areas, and perhaps should be regarded as the extreme melanic 

 form of the ab. marnwrinaria. 



Amongst my series I found one with yellow ground colour and 

 markings indistinct, and another, a very large specimen, with basal 

 area suffused with dark scales as far as the central line. This is, as 

 far as I am aware, unique. Only one female, a melanic one, was 

 found. On March 25th I obtained a pairing between the male of 

 Aiuphidcmfi strataria {prodronmria) and the female of Biston hirtaria, 

 but the ova were infertile, and all attempts to obtain the reverse cross 

 were fruitless. April 6th and 7th, bright sunny days, were spent 

 in the New Forest, but no effort was made to collect. Numbers 

 of hybernated Gonepteryx rhwivni were seen, and a few Vanessa io 

 and Eni/onia polycldoros. A fine female of Pararge aeyeria was 

 also noticed. Eupithccia ahbreviata was fairly common on tree 

 trunks, and four Tephrosias were found on some larches. They are 

 quite as pale as Tephrosia crepuscidaria, but must be T, bistortata, since 

 a typical second brood male emerged on June 24th, actually darker 

 than its parent. During April I took some pupjB of Aeyeria 

 {Trochiliiim) andrenaeforitm, and bred from them fifteen imagines, but 

 the only parasite was the too common Meniscus pimplator. Most of the 

 other parasites are rather scarce, and the majority seem to attack half- 

 grown larvje. 



Celastrina aryiolns w^as abundant wherever I went for the Clearwing, 

 in Surrey, Essex, Kent and Hertford, and hybernated specimens of 

 Aylais urticae and V. io were unusually common. At Shackleford, in 

 Surrey, a fresh but small female Evpithecia coronata was seen on April 

 28th on a small sapling. May 5th was spent at Box Hill, where 

 several Celastrina argiolus were flying round the beeches ! Low down 

 on larch trunks I took two Tephrosia consonaria ; one was a female, 

 but unfortunately it laid no eggs. Two Drepana ciiltraria {unyuicala) 

 were seen flying round the beeches. 



On May 11th I went to the Chalfont Road district to try and get 

 another female of Tephrosia consonaria, but found none, and though I 

 took a male Lithosia sororcula (aureola) on a beech trunk, moths 

 seemed rather scarce. A fine female of this insect was taken on the 

 wing at Box Hill on the 18th. 



On May 12th I walked from Brookwood to Farnborough, and on 

 the bank of the Basingstoke Canal Pararye meyaera and Celastrina 

 aryiolus were common, and Pieris napi, EucJdo'e cardamines, Gonepteryx 

 rhamni, Rinnicia phlaeas, Polyommatus icarus, and one Brenthis 

 euphrosyne were seen. Heliaca tenebrata [arbuti) was caught near 

 Brookwood, and Tephrosia punctularia was abundant at rest on the 

 alders. At Farnborough I took two Dasycliira pudibunda, one Drepana 

 binaria{liamnla) (female), one Diaphora niendica (female), one Spilosoiiia 

 vienthastri, one Clostera curtula (male), U ipocrita jacobaeae, and several 

 Macaria liturata were seen near the pine trees. 



May 18th was cold and showery, but larvs of Lithosia deplana were 



