NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 15 



NOTES AND OBSEKVATIONS. 



Aglais urtic-e, ab. — I have jusi seen a new aberration of a British 

 butterfly. At first it looked like a worn and shabby Pyrameis cardui. 

 But when it settled on a solitary dandelion, and I got close to it, 

 almost within a yard, it was quite clearly a Small Tortoiseshell in its 

 markings, but the wings, instead of being red, were ci'eam-coloured, 

 not so green as a pale primrose, not so rosy as a Gloire de Dijon.''' I 

 can hardly have been colour blind to red, because I had gone to look 

 for loganberries among the rasps. And yet you may hardly believe 

 me unless I can produce the specimen. It seemed in freshest 

 plumage on Sunday morning, August 26th. I find no account of 

 this variety in any book which I have consulted. I am reminded of 

 the pale variety of the small copper (C. phlceas) which I once saw 

 clearly in the island of Teneritfe, but missed with my net. If anyone 

 thinks cream-colour impossible in genus Vanessa, let him consider 

 the border of E. antiopa, both English and foreign. Small Tortoise- 

 shells have been unusually abundant during this last fine mid- 

 summer. I attribute this, not so much to the weather as to the war. 

 The neglect of agriculture and scarcity of labour has meant uncut 

 nettle-patches. The hard winter would seem to account for the 

 scarcity of blackbirds and other birds. We liave not had any special 

 caterpillar plagues, but I notice a few slugs. — Hugh Eichardsox ; 

 Wheel Birks, Stocksfield-on-Tyne. 



Vanessids, etc. — With reference to the notes on pp. 186 and 191 

 of the ' Entomologist ' for August, 1917, I have to state that Pyra- 

 meis atalanta and Aglais urticcB have been on the wing throughout 

 this summer here, the former certainly since June 9th, and in good 

 condition, and the latter more plentifully than in the two preceding 

 seasons. V. io has been particularly plentiful, and its larvte, which 

 I had not seen during the three preceding years, were noticed in 

 large colonies on nettles in several places. Of Pyrameis cardui I 

 have seen only two battered specimens (July 28th and x\ugust 7th). 

 Melanarcjia galatea was more than usually plentiful. Celastrina 

 argiolus, both broods, which were abundant last year, have been 

 very scarce here this year, contrary to the observations of ento- 

 mologists elsewhere.- — H. M. Parish ; Mount Vernon, Totnes, South 

 Devon. 



Pararge egeria, var. egerides. — As corroborating Mr. Gillett's 

 remark on the exceptional movement of butterflies this season, I 

 may mention that my little girl netted a good specimen of P. egeria 

 egerides on a dandelion, in our garden, on September 11th. During 

 twenty years here I have taken only a single specimen in this part 

 of Dorset, and this was seven miles to the west. Winfrith itself is 

 quite bare and open, so the capture in such an unsuitable locality 

 altogether astonished me. The butterfly appears very local in the 

 county, although I have, of course, seen it common in Devon and 

 the New Forest. As a boy-collector, for years in West Kent I never 

 saw it, and its curious distribution has always interested me. — 

 F. H. Haines ; Brookside, Winfrith, Dorset, November 5th, 1917. 



* = v&T. pallida, Mosley, "Varieties, etc.," ser. 2, Vanessa, pi. i, lig. 1. — H. 11.-15. 



