102 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



well prove an exception. Both wings of this specimen are 

 suffused with the beautifully shining purple that is seen to such 

 advantage on the fore wings of the female Zepliyrus querchs. 



But to return to C. minimus. Variation in this species — 

 excepting in regard to size ; a dwarf race* existing in places 

 where the food-plant is stunted by drought — is also not extensive, 

 and I have never seen anything worth recording. 



The spring brood is well distributed around Cambridge, but 

 often confined to an absurdly small patch of ground, and, 

 but for the partiality of the insect for chalk-pits, one might 

 easily spend a whole day 6ea,rching without success. 



The second brood, as stated above, seems to be confined to 

 the Eoman road and immediate neighbourhood, first appearing 

 about the end of July — normal emergence. 



In whilom days, Nomiades semiargiis could be "taken 

 commonly" in the localities mentioned, and even now I always 

 keep a sharp look out for it, as it is a species that could be 

 easily overlooked by anyone not making an especial search 

 amongst a crowd of P. icarus, C. minimus, and the like. 



At least, this is what I often tell myself. 



It may not be very convincing, but, like the ladies so 

 touchingly eulogised by Mr. Verdant Green, it adds a " larm to 

 chife." 



19, Tenison Avenue, 



Cambridge. 



INSECTS IN BURMESE AMBEE. 

 By F. N. Burn. 



Prof. Cockerell, of the University of Colorado, U.S.A., 

 who had already been investigating and describing insects from 

 the Miocene shales of Florissant, Colorado, and elsewhere, has 

 been studying and working on a collection of insects in Burmese 

 amber sent to him by Mr. R. Swinhoe, of Mandalay. He has 

 come across and described many genera and species, which 

 appear to show that, although the amber found in Burma is in 

 Miocene strata, it is derived from much older beds, and is 

 possibly Cretaceous. If this is the case, it will be of much 

 greater geological age than the amber from the Oligocene of the 

 Baltic and Northern Europe, and might enable a good idea to be 

 formed of a pre-tertiary insect fauna in tropical Asia. 



The entry of America into the war will, of course, delay tbe 

 work, and also the sending of further specimens from Burma to 

 America whilst there is a chance of their being submarined. 



* Invariably double-brooded. 



