38 LEP/DOPTERA. 



erratic. In some years hardly one is seen, even on tlie 

 South Coast ; in others it pervades, sparingly, the whole 

 country, travelling in a business-like way along the roadsides, 

 tdking an occasional sip of a flower — commonly a yellow 

 composite flower — and passing on ; by no means turning 

 back, or even remaining in the neighbourhood. But occa- 

 sionally there comes a favourable season, when it becomes 

 more settled, haunts our clover fields, and increases rapidly 

 in numbers. Even in time of feeding in the larva state,, and 

 of emergence, it is altogether inconstant. On the Continent 

 it notoriously hybernates, or even, in the South of Europe, 

 flies through most of the \\ inter, and in this country it has 

 been found under ivy, in the act of hybernation ; while on 

 rare occasions, worn females, evidently hybernated, have 

 been found in early summer laying their eggs. In repeated 

 instances larvai from eggs deposited in the autumn have fed 

 on steadily, quite into the winter, have then pupated, and, 

 in spite of all possible care, have died, in some cases becoming 

 perfect and fully coloured, in December, within the pupa, but 

 unable to emerge ; yet there is a record in the EntumohKjid 

 (by Mr. H. Jobson), that, of a brood which had so fed into 

 the winter, one larva survived, assumed the pupa state on 

 April 11th, and emerged May 2nd. 



The experience gained on the last occasion of its abundance 

 with us was so instructive as to be worth recoiding. In 1875 

 a few specimens were seen in the autumn, and in June 1876 

 also very few; but in the autumn of that year the numbers 

 had greatly increased, and of these all the females which I 

 saw were fluttering about grassy roadsides, among Lotus 

 corniculaiits, evidently depositing eggs, the latest being seen on 

 October 7th. That winter was so mild (in Pembrokeshire) 

 that fuchsias continued in blossom until the spring, and 

 the larvai must have fed quietly on through it and the colder 

 spring, for on the first summer day (June 4th) specimens 

 promptly sprang into life, larger than any of those of the 

 yireceding autumn — perfectly fresh and brilliant, evidently 



