A FEW COMPARATIVE NOTES ON SOME DIURNI. 325 



Scarce and late, like nearly all the spring-emerging species ; not 

 recorded till May 13th. 



Colias eclusa. — 1912. This species was evidently not rare at the 

 end of June near Boscastle, but the cold and wet weather prevailing 

 at the time precluded many chances of observation. A female, cap- 

 tured on the 23rd, lived for several days, but subsequently died with- 

 out laying. — 1913. The prevalence of " Clouded Yellows " this year 

 has been a bright feature in an otherwise cheerless season. On 

 June 3rd a female flew past me, near Westerham ; on the same day 

 my friend, Mr. F. Gillett, captured one on the N. Downs near his 

 house, from whose ova he was successful in rearing some specimens, 

 and on the 15th a chance meeting with a collector at Crockham 

 Hill revealed another female, just taken by him. As our records 

 show, these early specimens were the precursors of an abundant 

 later emergence. From August 16th to the 25th (and doubtless 

 later) the species was common on the slopes of the N. Downs, males 

 greatly preponderating. The absence of any record of the species in 

 the first fortnight of July, which was spent near Salcombe, S. Devon, 

 is noteworthy, as it is usually to be found in those parts ; pre- 

 sumably, the period was just " between the broods," which will also 

 account for the absence of Pierids during this visit, with the excep- 

 tion of one P. brassicce, on July 11th. 



Gonepteryx rhamni. — 1912. This species is usually seen fairly 

 commonly throughout these wooded hills, on which Bhamnus 

 frangula grows plentifully ; and in the spring of 1912 they were in 

 rather unusual abundance from March 11th onwards. Eggs, were 

 found towards the end of April, and on the 28th seventeen were 

 counted, all laid close together, on one shoot of buckthorn — an occur- 

 rence the more remarkable in that on several adjacent bushes no 

 ova could be found. Larvae that hatched on May 5th pupated on 

 June 7th, and produced butterflies early in July. Scores of these 

 butterflies were released in my garden, but scarcely any specimens 

 w^ere subsequently seen at large there or in the adjacent woods, only 

 five examples being recorded — four of these on September 8th and 

 21st, and one only during the miserably wet and cold August. — 

 1913, For the first time during nearly thirty years of recorded 

 observations have I failed this spring to see hybernated specimens 

 of this butterfly, nor could I discover that they had been seen by 

 others in this immediate district. Mr. Gillett noted a few on the 

 N. Downs, and I saw one male at Mereworth on June 14th. It is 

 therefore scarcely surprising that the species in its summer emergence 

 has been far to seek, only one being seen here, on September 28th. 

 On the other hand, on the chalk hills opposite they have been fairly 

 common this August. Although more eggs appear to be laid on the 

 exposed and shrubby buckthorn bushes hereabouts, yet the larvai 

 would seem to survive their enemies more successfully on the spread- 

 ing tree-like growths of B. frangula, which grow under the deep 

 shade of beech and other trees. Here I have found them full-grown 

 frequently, but have searched for the pupa in vain, except on one 

 occasion, when one was found attached to a stem of heather some 

 yards from the food-plant. 



Vanessa urticcs. — 1912. After hybernation, April 17th. Not 



