NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 17 



been accustomed to see it in recent years. A careful scrutiny of the 

 ivy flower-bud heads, however, revealed the presence of eggs and 

 recently vacated egg-shells in abnormal profusion ; sufificiently good 

 evidence that the butterflies also had been unusually abundant, but 

 that I arrived on the scene too late to see them in their greatest 

 numbers. I hear also that in the Abbotts Wood district the butterfly 

 was unprecedentedly common. — Robt. Adkin ; Lewisham, Nov. 1900. 



The Vanessids in 1900. — The pages of the entomological journals 

 have contained, during the past few months, an unusual number of 

 records of the observation or capture of rare species, among which are 

 included several of Vanessa antiopa. It is, however, surprising how 

 seldom reference is made to the more common, though from many 

 points equally interesting, members of the group. Vanessa [Cynthia) 

 cardui, V. to, V. atalanta, and even V. polijchlorus, are generally regarded 

 as " such common species "that few entomologists appear to attach 

 any importance to their occurrence or absence; but I venture to think 

 that much useful information might be gathered from precise records 

 of the abundance or otherwise of, and exact details regarding, the various 

 species in particular districts, especially in a season like the past, 

 which appears, in many respects, to have been a peculiar one. Such 

 records, if concisely put, need occupy but little space, and yet convey 

 3- large amount of information. — R. Adkin ; Nov. 1900. 



Erebia glacialis : a Correction. — At the meeting of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London held on October 17th last, I made some 

 remarks on some specimens of ft'. ijlaciaUs then exhibited by Mr. H. 

 Rowland-Brown. In the report of that meeting published in the 

 December number of the ' Entomologist ' (xxxiii. 359) I am made to 

 say that " the darker specimens approached to the form of E. melas 

 found in the neighbourhood of Cortina-di-Ampezzo." This is not 

 quite correct ; what I said was that the darker specimens were like 

 " the form that had been supposed to be E. melas found near Cam- 

 piglio." I refer to the examples first brought into notice by Mrs. 

 Nicholl, and afterwards taken by Calberla, myself, and others, and 

 proved by Calberla to be E. glacialis. — T. A. ChapxMan ; Betula, 

 Reigate. 



Sounds produced by Pup.e. — I reared about forty larv^ of Thecla 

 quercus, and after they reached the pupal stage I placed them in a tin 

 tobacco box, and, by chance, placed the lot upon a cardboard box. 

 Daring the evening, whilst setting insects, I constantly heard a sound 

 like the ticking of many watches, but with a kind of slight rasping as 

 well. Upon opening the tin all was quiet, but, on gently tapping the 

 tin, the sounds commenced again. I then placed the tin upon the 

 table and tapped, when the same ticking was resumed, but it was not 

 quite so audible. The position they first occupied acted as a kind of 

 sounding-board ; I could repeat the experiment any number of times. 

 All the pupte produced imagines, so the sounds could not have been 

 made by parasites. About twenty pupte of Vanessa polychloros fell from 

 off the cover of a cardboard box which I had placed upon a chair. I 

 experimented upon these by striking the floor sharply ; the pupae then 

 made a very peculiar noise, a repeated tapping, and when I ceased 



ENTOM.— JANUARY, 1901. C 



