NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 209 



conditions on the liabits of moths, carried out in different localities, are 

 sure to afford valuable hints for the biology of Lepidoptera. — 

 B. Menschutkin ; St. Petersburg- Sosuowka, Polyteclmical Institute, 

 Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Aug. 9th, 1906. 



Notes on Pyrameis cardui. — At Dovercourt several worn examples 

 of this butterfly were noticed during May. On June 1st I went to 

 Instow, North Devon, and on the 2ud of the month, which was rather 

 cold with a fresh north-westerly breeze, and on the 3rd, which was 

 brighter, warmer, and less windy, a few were seen flying about the 

 gardens and elsewhere. On the 4th, a delightfully bright hot day, 

 with a light north-westerly breeze, I went to some high moorland to 

 look for M. artemis, and here there were numbers of cardui passing 

 from south-east to north-west, flying at great speed, and scarcely ever 

 alighting on flowers or on the ground. During the three hours I was 

 there, there was a constant succession of them, and there were always 

 two or three in sight at the same time. I must have seen many 

 hundreds in the course of the morning, and on my way home they still 

 kept passing, and I saw great numbers again in the afternoon, all 

 apparently migrating in the same direction. All that passed near 

 seemed to be bright fresh-looking insects. On the 5th and 6th, which 

 were very bright warm days, with a gentle breeze from the south-west, 

 I was collecting on some rough high land, some 750 ft. above the 

 level of the sea, and situp.ted sixteen or eighteen miles to the south- 

 west of the ground I was on on the 4th, and here cardui were plentiful, 

 but seemed to be stationary. On the 7th, another lovely day, I was 

 working on some slopes above the Kiver Yeo, between Barnstaple and 

 Lynton, about twenty miles to the north-east of where I was on the 

 5th and 6th, and here I also found cardui flying in some numbers, and 

 noticed several females busily engaged depositing their ova upon 

 various species of thistles. The whole time 1 was in North Devon — 

 from June 1st until July 19th — I do not think a day passed without 

 seeing this butterfly, but towards the end of my visit many of them 

 were in an extremely ragged condition. On July 14th, while looking 

 for P. litJiodactylus among fleabane [Inula dysenterica), I noticed a 

 small larva of cardui sitting quite exposed on the upper surface of a 

 leaf, and upon searching the plants I saw that a quantity of larvae 

 must have been feeding, to judge by the number of empty " tents." 

 I found two or three more small ones and one nearly full grown. The 

 young larvje appeared to attack the flower-buds first, spinning the 

 terminal leaves together over the bud, which they devour, and then 

 leave and spin " tents " lower down the stem. This was the first 

 occasion upon which I had met with larvae of cardui upon fleabane, 

 and I do not think that it has been recorded as a food- plant. I have 

 since seen larvaa and empty tents upon several species of thistle. The 

 larvfe I found produced butterflies on August 3rd-5th, and I have 

 seen many fresh-looking butterflies in this neighbourhood during the 

 past week. — Gervase P. Mathew; The Green, Ferndowu, Dorset, 

 August 20th, 1906. 



ENTOM. — SEPTEMBER, 1906. 



