THE ENTOMOLOGIST 
Vou. XLIT.] MAY, 19.09: [No. 552 
THER) KOOD-PLANE OF. LL. ORBITULUS. 
By T. A. Cuapman, M.D., F.Z.S., &ce. 
Last summer (1908) I met with ZL. orbitulus abundantly in 
several of the valleys south of the Rhone, but especially in the 
Binn Thal, in the first week in August. I had the pleasure of 
observing it ovipositing in various localities on the slopes of the 
Holzerspits. The plant on which the butterflies were laying was 
Androsace (Gregoria) vitaliana. 
_ Having ascertained this, I noticed that this plant was com- 
mon wherever the butterflies were most abundant. The plants 
where the butterflies flew were beyond the flowering season, 
possibly two or three weeks, but 1000 ft. or so higher up, where 
there were no orbitulus—in fact, at about the highest limit of the 
plant—it was still in flower, each plant presenting a beautiful 
patch of crowded yellow flowers. The butterflies laid on and 
under the leaves near the summit of each branch or rosette 
of leaves. 
The larve hatched in seven or eight days, and fed freely on 
the leaves of the plant. I succeeded in getting several larve 
full-grown in the first skin, but failed to ggt further. The plants 
I brought home with me soon died, and some I succeeded in 
getting from a nursery were covered with aphides and very un- 
healthy, and soon died, although 1 managed to clear off the 
aphides, and so the experiment came to an end. I was thus 
unable to tell at what stage the larva hybernates; it can hardly 
be later than the second instar, though on the sun-baked slopes 
where much of the plant grew no doubt rapid progress might 
be made. 
However, I have determined the food-plant, which is im- 
portant, and have obtained photographs of the egg (by Mr. 
Tonge), and obtained a preparation of the larva in the first in- 
star showing its structure, well photographed by Mr. F. N. Clark. 
I add a note on the colouring, &c., of the larva when full- 
grown in the first instar. My note was made on September 5th, 
ENTOM.—may, 1909, K 
