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THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Papilio dardanus var. Leighi, and Danais chrysippus-dorippus 

 IN Natal. — By a slip of the pen in our note on Professor Poulton's 

 remarks in ' Nature ' on " Polymorphism in a Group of Mimetic 

 Butterflies" (antea, p. 271), we mentioned the assistance given the 

 author hy " the late " Mr. C. F. Leigh. We had in mind the late 

 Mr. A. D. Millar, of Durhan, and ofifer our apologies to Mr. Leigh, 

 whose many friends in this country will be glad to hear that not 

 only is he alive and well, but that he is continuing his successful 

 breeding experiments. Under date, September 28th, he writes that 

 " he bred on September 25th the finest example of the leighi form of 

 the Papilio dardanus that he has yet reared. This specimen — the 

 seventh known to exist — was reared from ova obtained from a 

 variety of the trophimus form of the female, and is now in the 

 collection of Mr. D. Longsdon, of London." Mr. Leigh also asks us 

 to announce the occurrence of the dorippus form of the female of 

 Danais cJirysii^pus in some numbers in and near Durban this 

 season, after not being seen for some years. — (H. E.-B.) 



Apparent Autumnal Migration of Pyrameis atalanta. — During 

 the middle and latter part of September, when the settled weather 

 for which we had looked so long came at last, a number of Pyrameis 

 atalanta frequented a long bed of China asters in my garden. An 

 attempt by my boy to catch one resulted in a torn hind wing, which 

 served to identify the individual. On the look-out for the particular 

 insect thus marked, I noticed an apparent migration of the butterflies. 

 Thus on September 12th there were two, one with a torn hind wing ; 

 on September 13th three ; on September 16th the torn one had 

 disappeared, leaving two; on September 17th there were three again, 

 but the torn one was not among them. On the 19th there were 

 three, and one of these had again a torn hind wing, but this was not 

 the same insect that had been previously noted, as the opposite wing 

 was damaged. In two days this also had disappeared. On the 

 following few days four butterflies were seen, but none of them had 

 an injured wing. Then they were reduced to three, increased to 

 four again, reduced to two, and finally disappeared altogether early 

 in October. It seemed, therefore, that a migration was going on 

 which the occurrence of two injured insects enabled one to follow. — 

 (Rev.) W. G. Whittingham ; Knighton Vicarage, Leicester. 



Occurrence of Second Broods of Pyrameis atalanta and 

 P. cARDUi. — In reference to Mr. Carter's note on the abundance of 

 P. atalanta larvae this season in Kent {antea, p. 299), I may state 

 that larvae of this species also occurred very abundantly in this 

 district in June. Some hundred that I collected were full-fed by the 

 beginning of July, and every individual produced a butterfly later. 

 Imagines commenced to emerge July 18th, and by this time larvae 

 had disappeared from the nettle-beds in the lanes ; they were not in 

 evidence again until about September 14th, when they commenced to 

 appear, and by the beginning of October were quite as abundant 

 as in June. At the time of writing this note I have larvae as small 

 as a quarter of an inch in length, while others are preparing to 



