NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN. 245 



Cyayiiris an/iolus. — A few males round the plane-trees. 



Polyommatus icarns. — Males abundant, females not very common. 

 There is one ab. icarimis amongst my captures, but several vary in the 

 opposite direction, i. e. are increscent forms. 



Spilothi/rus alcece var. mistralis. — Fairly common, especially in hol- 

 lows at the foot of the hills. 



AdopcBfi actipon. — Common. In the evening, when waiting in the 

 dockyard for the boat, I took a nice little series settled on clumps of 

 rushes. 



Dijsaitxes punctata. — One specimen, inclining to subsp. hyalina, 

 Freyer. 



Ophiusa hifasciata {(jeometrica). — One. 



Thalpochares ostrina. — I only noticed one, but it was probably 

 common. 



Besides these there are several undetermined Geometrids and 

 Pyralids, and a Sphingid which was hovering over flowers in the 

 afternoon ; from a glimpse I got of this last, I put it down as 

 HipiMion celerio. Curiously enough, the ubiquitous P. cardui 

 and M. stellatariim did not put in an appearance. Lepidoptera 

 were by no means the only insects about, and a hymenopterist 

 especially would have been in clover. One of the most striking 

 insects observed was Palpares libelluloides (a Myrmeleonid) ; it 

 has a wild, weak, flapping flight, but is wary when settled, and 

 difficult to approach. 



We left Suda Bay very early on June 3rd, and got to Malta 

 next morning, coaled, and joined the Fleet the day after off the 

 north coast of Sicily. On June 9th a specimen of Manduca 

 {Acherontia) atropos was caught on board, and brought to me. 

 Weighing all the probabilities, it appears to me that it flew on 

 board the night before, during which we were not less than 

 seventy miles from land ; but, especially in these days of short 

 passages, it is extremely difficult to assert positively that an 

 insect has actually flown on board from any distance over the 

 W'ater, and has not previously come on board the ship — or 

 another ship of the Fleet — on a previous occasion when in har- 

 bour ; even when actually seen flying inboard apparently from 

 the open sea, there is a possibility that it may have been on 

 board before, and only be returning from a flight outboard in 

 search of another place of refuge. In the case of birds which 

 have flown on board, I have often seen them take a long flight 

 outboard in search of land, and then return again to the ship as 

 their only refuge ; if not before noticed on board, we might 

 readily credit this return to the ship as a first arrival. However, 

 in the present case, M. atropos has well-known powers of flight. 



(To be continued.) 



