—53— 



On the identity of Cyaniris ladon of Cramer with C. pseud- 

 argiolus of Boisduval and Leconte. 



By Arthur G. Butler, F.L,S., F.Z.S.L. 



In the third volume of his "Description de Papillons exotiques", 

 pi. cclxx, d, E; Cramer figures a blue Lyccenid under the name ofPapilio 

 ladon; in his text p. 141 he says — ''On f a irouve au Cap de bon Esper- 

 ance". 



In his Encyclopedic Methodique, vol. ix, p. 678, Godart describes 

 the species and repeats Cramer's locality. 



Mr. Trimen, "Rhopalocera Africa? Australis" p. 252, again describ- 

 es the species but says at the end of his description — "The only example 

 I have seen is the $ specimen in the British Museum ". 



The specimen mentioned by Trimen bears a label referring to the 

 Old Museum Register in which I find P. Ladon Cram. a. S. Africa ?, 

 the locality having evidently been assumed from the fact that Cramer 

 gives Cape of Good Hope as the habitat of the species. 



The specimen described by Mr. Trimen is the form of C. pseudargi- 

 olas to which Mr. W. H. Edwards has given the name of Lyccetia margin- 

 a/a; it does not wholly agree with Cramer's figure, the latter being rep- 

 resented by a form nearer to the Lyatna violacea of Edwards and differ- 

 ing from L. marginata in the absence of the brown marginal suffusion 

 only; a series of this — the typical form of C. ladon — was in the 'Zeller' 

 collection labelled as Lyc&na lucia; two specimens of typical L. lucia 

 stood with the series, which was obtained from Maine, U.S.A. 



The date of publication of Cramer's species is 1782, that of the de- 

 scription of pseudargiolus is 1833; so that there can be no question as to 

 the priority of the name C. ladon, the only pity is that M. Boisduval 

 should have failed to recognize the species owing to the false locality 

 given by Cramer. 



Notes and News. 



In No. 1, Vol. VIII of the Journal of the Cincinnati Soc. of Nat. 

 Hist. p. 49 is a translation of an article from the "Bulletin de la Societe 

 Geologique de France" 3me series, Vol. XII, p. 676, etseq., entitled 

 "On the tracks of Insects resembling the impression of plants'. In it 

 are described the tracks or tunnels made by a species of mole cricket 

 just under the surface of a clay soil, and the superficial resemblance of 

 these elevations .to stems of certain species of plants is pointed out. It 

 is suggested that if by any chance such a track were preserved in, or im- 

 pressed on sandstone, it might very easily be mistaken for a fossil Br achy- 



