NOTES OF CAPTURES IX THE NEW FOREST. 51 



existence of hermaphrodites it is impossible to say ; but in the 

 case of butterflies, where the male and female differ very much, 

 they have often settled their specific identity, and still more in 

 the case of dimorphism. 



I have been an impatient listener to accounts of the quite 

 different habits of Argynnis Paphia to those oiArgynnis Valezina. 

 In my younger days all seemed to think that the degradation of 

 a so-called species into a variety was a positive injury to the 

 value of a collection ; but now a variety, local race, or even 

 aberration of the commonest insect, is invested at once with both 

 a scientific and an intrinsic value. 



I trust I have written suflicieut to show that some instruction 

 may be gained from mere aberration, more from varieties, and 

 still more from dimorphic forms ; and, in conclusion, have to 

 express my thanks to Messrs. Ashmede, Carrington, B. Cooper, 

 J. H. Cooper, and Argent, for placing these valuable specimens 

 in my hands for description. 



6, Haddo VUlas, Blackbeatb, London, S.E., February, 1882. 



NOTES OF CAPTURES IN THE NEW FOREST. 

 By Wm. J. Akgent. 



At the risk of going over ground trodden by other corre- 

 spondents in recent numbers of the ' Entomologist,' I venture to 

 send a few notes of a fortnight's stay, made with my friend Mr. 

 Bernard Cooper, at Lyndhurst, during the second and third 

 weeks of July last. The weather, as many will remember, was 

 hot and cloudless ; being, in fact, one of those rare spells of real 

 summer weather, with a heat almost tropical, and increasing 

 every day in intensity, with which we are still occasionally 

 favoured. For entomological purposes, at least, it was simplj'' 

 perfect ; brilliant days being succeeded by nights equally accej)t- 

 able to insect life. 



As a result of the increased heat, nearly everything was a 

 week or more in advance of its usual time of appearance. As 

 early as the 13th the second brood of Leucophasia SinapiswsLS on 

 the wing, and Catocala promissa made its first appearance at sugar; 

 whilst a few days later Gonepterijx Bhamnl was disporting itself 



