﻿NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



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is as widespread inland as it is plentiful on the sand dunes 

 stretching from Aberdovey towards Towyn, on the Bay of 

 Cardigan. Newman, who apparently was in touch with few Welsh 

 localities when he wrote his ' British Butterflies,' remarks that he 

 " never saw it settling on flowers or basking in the sun {cp. also Mr. 

 W. Eait-Sraith on " The Butterflies of Abertillery, Mon.," ' Ent. 

 Eecord,' xviii. (1906), p. 309). With regard to flowers, my recent 

 experience is quite the reverse. The little sequestered gullies and 

 clefts of the sand hihs, running seaward from the Aberdovey golf- 

 links, in early August are gay with the beautiful Sea Holly, 

 Enjngiuyn maritimum, and its tufts of lavender-blue blossom are 

 visited by both sexes in considerable numbers whenever the sun 

 shines. I even observed on one occasion the butterfly paired upon 

 the flower-head. In the matter of basking, semele, I think, con- 

 trives to combine the pleasure of a sun-bath with protective mimicry. 

 As soon as it settles on the warm sand — usually where there is some 

 moisture — it closes the wings immediately at right-angles to the 

 body, and lies over on the side, just as I have seen several species of 

 Erebia, notably Erebia tyndarus, in order to escape attention. 

 Otherwise, the tastes of the Grayling are less aesthetic ; at Aberdovey 

 I frequently saw them upon cow droppings, as abroad, where also 

 they affect fir-tree stems upon which, when at rest, they are effectu- 

 ally concealed. Other butterflies haunting the Eryngium were 

 Polyommatus icarus, with the blue females in the ascendant, and 

 Chrysophanus phlceas ; but " Blues " and " Coppers " ahke were 

 completely outnumbered by Anthrocera (Zygcena) filipendula, the 

 males of small size, whose pearly cocoons were hung everywhere on 

 the marram bents. Mr. Arkle {loc. cit. p. 363) reports that the furze- 

 and fern-clad slopes in the neighbourhood of the town " are said to 

 be a locality for Lyccena avion." It would be interesting to know 

 the authority for this statement ; the terrain is Ukely enough with 

 its ant-hills and abundant wild-thyme and marjoram. Has anyone 

 followed up the clue at the right season of the year ? It is on just 

 such a formation as that of these hills that I have found conti- 

 nental arion most common. — H. Eowland-Brown ; Harrow Weald, 

 August 8th, 1915. 



Papilio machaon : a Suggestion. — I do not know whether 

 there are any resident lepidopterists in Aberdovey. If so, I venture 

 to make them a suggestion and an offer. On the slaty rocks above 

 and in the town, and on the right bank of the river Dovey, the 

 fennel — Fccniculum vulgare — attains to continental height and 

 luxuriance ; it is widely distributed and apparently emancipated 

 from the garden. Looking up the pabulum of Papilio machaon 

 given by the various British authorities I was rather surprised to 

 find that neither Mr. L. W. Newman and Mr. H. A. Leeds, in their 

 recent (1913) text-book, nor the late J. W. Tutt, in his 'British 

 Butterflies,' mention this species of fennel as an alternative food 

 plant; though Mr. South, in 'Butterflies of the British Isles,' cites 

 it with Angelica sylvcstris, Daucus carota, and Peucedanum pahistre. 

 Wherever the fennel grows in France on the cliffs fronting the 

 Channel it is a conspicuous feature in the landscape, and usually 



