THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. X.] FEBEUAEY, 1877. [No. 165. 



THE OCCURRENCE OF MELIT^A DIDYMA IN THE 

 SOUTH OF SCOTLAND. 



By J. Jenner Weir, F.L.S., F.Z.S, 



Melit.ea Didyma, 



It has been a matter of surprise to me that so few species 

 of the genus MeiUma are known to be indigenous to the 

 Briliiih Isles. Mr. Kirby, in his 'Manual of European But- 

 tertiies,' gives a list of sixteen found within the limits of 

 Europe: of these but three have been detected in this 

 country. All are gregarious in their habits and extremely 

 local in their distribution, so much so that but few Lepi- 

 do[)terisls have taken all three of them, altiiough in the 

 localities frequented they are usually found in considerable 

 plenty. 



Mr. W. Lennon, of the Crichlon Royal Institution, Dum- 

 fries, has sent to the Editors of this magazine a specimen of 

 Meti/cea Didyma, which he stales he captured some years 

 ago wiihin a few miles of Dumfries, in company with 

 Aryynnis Euphrosyiie and Selene, which on llie day of 

 the Capture, to use his own words, were in "such swarms" 

 as he had never before wituessed. He at the time con- 

 sidered the insect a fine variety of one of the two species 



