NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 71 



weather. The female examples were plentiful, and I systematically 

 noted the number seen, and when the number of typical female 

 examples reached 100 I had boxed two black examples. When the 

 total touched 200 I had four black ones, and had by then searched 

 over a considerable area. I was then approaching the more restricted 

 ai'ea, covering about a quarter of a mile square, where last year the 

 black variety appeared to be more plentiful, and I quickly added to 

 the number of black examples, for by the time the total of typical 

 ones seen had reached 240 I was in possession of ten black ones. On 

 the following day I worked over practically the same area, and again 

 the number of black ones averaged about 4 per cent, of the total seen, 

 the total being considerably in excess of the previous day's total. If 

 I had confined myself to the restricted area only, the average would 

 have been considerably higher than four, but in order to arrive at a 

 more accurate result I considered it necessary for my operations to 

 cover a fairly extensive area. The dark melanic variety of H. defoUaria 

 is undoubtedly on the increase in Epping Forest, and after the 

 termination of the war, when it again becomes possible to use a 

 lantern, I shall endeavour to investigate the distribution of the 

 melanic male examples. In December, 1914, I captured a dozen fine 

 smoked male examples, which appeared to be a large number, for my 

 total during the previous twelve years had only been three. It is 

 possible that the melanic male examples have increased considerably 

 since 1914. The above statistics may be of interest as a record of 

 »the distinct increase during one season of the black form of female 

 H. defoUaria.—'R: T. Bowman ; 108, Station Eoad, Chingford, E. 4. 



Butterflies Collected in the Alpes-Maritimbs, near 

 Menton. — During the months of September and October, 1916, 

 and March, April, and May, 1917, I collected in the neighbourhood 

 of Menton forty-eight species and varieties of diurnal Lepidoptera. 

 Those which I had already collected at Vernet-les-Bains are not 

 enumerated again. After my return from Vernet-les-Bains to 

 Menton on September 11th, 1916, I procured an insect net with 

 a 12-in. opening and began to collect at sea-level, ascending 

 subsequently to about 300 ft. I selected first a spot oil' the sunny 

 and sheltered Boulevarde de Garavan where a clump of brambles 

 was frequented by numerous insects and worked thence up both 

 sides of a steep ravine, first the east then the west side as far as 

 a path leading in the direction of Castellar by way of the Cote da 

 Colla." It was in these localities that I caught most of my autumn 

 specimens. I also collected a few on the old Sospel road about 

 half-way to Monti and yet others close to the sea in the East Bay. 

 The species and varieties hitherto uncollected by me, which I captured 

 in September, were Colias hyale (^ , G. edusa, ab. j^cdlida, Pontia 

 daplidicc 9 . Pyrameis cardui, Pararge egeria var. intermedia 9 , and 

 Epinephile jurtina var. hispuUa $ . In October I caught Satyr us 

 amalthea, Friv., Pararye egeria var. intermedia (^ , Chrysophanus phlceas 

 var. eleus ^ , Lampides baiticiis ^ , Tarucus telicanus (^ and ? , and 

 Agriades liylas. The country behind Menton consists of cols or 

 ridges with intervening valleys extending towards a bare rocky 



* Printed as pronounced. 



