﻿198 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Hibernation op Peronea sponsana, Fab. — In view of the fact 

 that this is a late autumnal species, the congeners of which are 

 known to hibernate, it is somewhat remarkable that no observations 

 concerning its occurrence in the spring should, so far as I am aware, 

 have been placed upon record, Barrett states (Brit. Lepidop. vol. 10, 

 p. 237) : — " On the wing from July to October, apparently without 

 hybernating." It may be of interest therefore to record the capture 

 of three rather worn specimens of tl:iis species on May 25th. They 

 were beaten from beech at Eanmore Common, Surrey. I may add 

 that from Scotland I have records of this moth coming to light in 

 November. — E. Meldola; 6, Brunswick Square, W.C, July 6th, 1915. 



MeLANARQIA GALATEA IN THE ChILTERNS. A p'O^OS of my 



remarks about this species [antea, p. 142), I am pleased to say that 

 this year I have had the pleasure of taking M. galatea for the first 

 time in my experience in this region, at a spot about midway between 

 Wendover and High Wycombe. On July 4th I was walking over a 

 piece of grassy down which I have long suspected as a possible 

 haunt of the species, when a lately emerged female suddenly rose 

 from under my feet. Unfortunately the sky had become overcast, 

 and though I quested the locality for an hour I did not see another 

 example. Argynnis aglaia was commoner (all males) than I have 

 ever seen it hereabouts; but there were no A. adippe. Aglaia does 

 not seem to require hot sunshire to stimulate activity. — H. Rowland- 

 Brown ; Harrow Weald, July 5th, 1915. 



Use of a Fungus in Entomology. — A reference to the use of the 

 birch-tree fungus (Polyponis hetulinus) in mounting Micro-Lepidoptera 

 appears in the May number of the current issue of the ' Entomologist,' 

 p. 127. It reminds me of the first " butterfly-cabinet " I ever saw — 

 more than sixty years ago — and it did credit to the amateur who 

 made it and filled it with specimens, chiefly local. The drawers, made 

 of white deal, were neither papered nor corked. Instead of the latter, 

 narrow strips of this dried fungus — cork-like and snowy-white — were 

 glued to the bottoms. The difficulty of arranging the strips so as to 

 suit the different sizes of insects was, with a little forethought, easily 

 got over ; and I have no recollection that my old friend was ever 

 troubled with mites. This fungus, when dried and cut into strips of 

 the required thickness, was often used in those days as razor strops. 

 — J. Arkle ; Chester. 



An Interesting Variety op Arctia caia prom Saltley Dis- 

 trict. — I should like to record a variety of this insect which was 

 brought to me by a friend of mine on July 6th. The specimen is a 

 female, the upper wings being of uniform chocolate colour without a 

 trace of white, the under wings being of the same colour, thickly 

 fringed with tawny-coloured hair on the inner edges, the usual black 

 spots being present on the under wings, showing up clearly on the 

 chocolate. The body is absolutely normal, being of a red colour with 

 black bars, the hair on the thorax being chocolate as usual. Un- 

 fortunately, as too often happens in the case of " varieties," the 

 under wings are slightly undeveloped, the right wing, when pinned 

 out, being about seven-eights the usual size, and the left wing about 



