NOTES ON THE SEASON. RHOPALOCERA. 269 



forms not, however, being so marked or plentiful, and A. thetis was 

 just appearing. A further visit on the 21st found A. t/wtis common, 

 the females being distinguished by the large proportion of specimens shot 

 with blue. Again these blue forms were confined to one field, and I 

 found them much less plentiful in other spots of the Dorking range. 

 In the afternoon I was fortunate enough to capture a freshly emerged 

 male of a pale lilac-blue colour, which I assume is the aberration known 

 as pallida and is a hybrid between P. icarm^ and A. tltetis.-'' In every 

 point except the colour the specimen has the characteristics oi A. thetifi, 

 the colour, however, approaches more the shade of Ai/riades coridon 

 than of P. icanis. As regards the females of A. thetis, I found that in 

 all other localities that I visited in Kent and Surrey, the brown form 

 predominated, few being of the shot-blue form and none well defined. 

 A visit to the Denbies on May 25th showed A. thetis well out and 

 fairly plentiful, but the females were of ordinary type, " blue " forms 

 not being striking and scarce. 



The next three excursions were devoted to the Surrey downs in 

 search of common forms of A. thetis, but without success. Generally 

 I found that this species was not so common as in former seasons, 

 and the wind was now beginning to become violent and the sun shy. 

 A hunt was made for larvte of A- coridon, but only in one locality was 

 it found at all, and here it was extremely abundant. A fine series 

 were bred from these larva, one or two underside varieties being 

 obtained. Visits were next paid to various Kent localities, more 

 especially around the Maidstone range of Chalk hills, but the weather 

 conditions were unfavourable, and all the "blues" except Cari/iidiis 

 were very scarce. A visit was paid to Horsley with Mr. Frohawk in 

 search of Cupido viinivitis, which was found plentifully on June 9th, 

 together with P. icanis, but a keeper interfered with our business and 

 we had to find other pastures. Mr. Frohawk had a scientific 

 argument with the keeper, but it was ineffective, even when he gave 

 forth of his great knowledge on birds. 



From June 28th to July 1st was spent at Witherslack in company 

 with Mr. Frohawk and my brother. Here again we had to put up 

 with very indifferent weather. Coenonyinpha ti/phon [davns) were 

 common, but mostly worn, on the mosses, but we each managed to 

 get a very fair series of perfect specimens, and on the one morning 

 when the sun gave evidence of its existence, Aricia vwdon var. 

 salmacis were seen and obtained in considerable numbers in the pink 

 of condition. We had arranged for a carriage to convey us to Grange 

 Station on the Monday in time to catch the fast train to London, but 

 the driver turned up over half an hour late, and we had to put up with 

 the next best train, entailing a long wait at Carnforth. During the 

 whole day heavy rain came down without intermission, and we had 

 the consolation of knowing that we had not erred in deciding not to 

 stay another day at Witherslack, which we had thought of doing when 

 the trap arrived too late. /'. icanis, male and female, were out, but 

 scarce ; the males were large and of a very bright blue, but I noticed 

 nothing very remarkable about the females ; the undersides of both 

 sexes were well defined, much more so than in the southern form. 



* Most unlikely. The blue colour o£ nearly all the Lycanids is subject to very 

 wide variation. To what form of hybridisation could the leaden coloured 

 specimens found in several species be attributed ? — G.W. 



