318 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



proximity to each other, they both occupied similar positions. Both 

 were very rich in colour, the darker parts of the fore wings being of a 

 warm olive-green, while the lighter portions were tinged with faint rosy 

 pink ; from their fresh appearance both had evidently only recently 

 emerged. I found them clinging to a clump of mixed bramble and 

 heather, intermingled with bracken-fern. They rested with their fore 

 wings closed longitudinally over the hind ones, but their most striking 

 feature was that the costal margins of the former were again folded 

 downwards, and then bent inwards towards the body, making a sort of 

 irregularly crinkled roll on either side of the insect. These little curled- 

 up rolls, together with the bold scalloping of the wing-margins and the 

 thick plumage of the thorax, when coupled with the rich marblings of 

 the fore wings, gave the moths an almost exact resemblance to wither- 

 ing leaves, which harmonized beautifully with the autumnal tints of 

 the real inanimate leaves among which they rested. — A. J. Johnson ; 

 Baldmere, Sept. 3rd, 1894. 



Curious form of Spilosoma menthastri. — I have a specimen of 

 S, menthastri in my collection which has a clear brown patch extending 

 over nearly half the area of the right front wing ; the veins snow- 

 white, however ; the right hind wing, too, is slightly brownish at the 

 hind margin ; the antenna on the right side, also, is smaller than 

 its fellow, though perfectly formed. I caught it at light, at Nice (South 

 France), May 28th, 1894. Is the individual in question a hybrid 

 between S. menthastri and some other insect ; or, how can this 

 condition be accounted for? — Frank Bromilow ; " Selborne," Poole 

 Boad, West Bournemouth, October 1st, 1894. 



The Scarcity of Pieris brassic^ in 1894. — I can fully endorse 

 the remarks of Mr. A. J. Lucas (ante, p. 295) respecting the scarcity of 

 this butterfly during the present season. With the exception of what 

 I have reared from last year's pupfe, I do not think that I have seen 

 above a dozen specimens altogether. The same scarcity seems to have 

 also existed on the continent, if a brief tour through France and 

 Switzerland, during the latter part of the summer, can be relied upon 

 as representing the prevailing conditions throughout the season, for I 

 did not see a single specimen of this species in either country, although 

 Pieris rapa was very abundant everywhere. — W. Harcourt Bath ; 

 Birmingham, October 3rd, 1894. 



Notes on Colias edusa and the Flight of Insects. — Eeferring 

 to Kev. W. Claxton's remarks upon the flight of Colias edusa 

 {ante, p. 297), I can thoroughly endorse his observation that this 

 species generally flies from east to west. It is an interesting fact, and 

 one which I have often thought worthy of remark. Why is it ? The 

 observations of entomologists have also proved that by far a greater 

 percentage of our Heterocera fly from east to west, and in evidence of 

 this I may point out that as a general rule moths are attracted to light 

 more freely when the light faces east ; and again the question must be 

 asked — why ? And so with the beetle tribe ; one finds Zahrus gibbus 

 often in numbers along the west side of corn fields in Germany in the 

 evening, the insect which has done considerable injury to corn crops so 

 often ; whilst on the east side of the field one will not find a single speci- 



