142 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



baton, Berg, (the hylas of Hiibner and hi/lus of Fabricius), four specimens 

 taken March 20th. E. belia might easily be mistaken for our E.cardamines, 

 in spite of the entire absence of the orange tip even in the males. Yet, to 

 my mind, it is a handsomer butterfly. The upper-wing tips are broadly 

 black, and contain three white spots, the apical one being larger than the 

 other two below it, and there is a very large black spot, boot-shaped, but 

 with the heel cut off, in the male, and rectangular in the female. The 

 under sides of the fore wings are tipped with green and spotted with silvery 

 white, while the lower ones are wholly green and similarly spotted. The 

 specimen of P. egeria is a typical one, and contrasts strongly with a series 

 I have from Co. Waterford, the ground colour of which is nearly black, 

 and the spots the palest of buff, nearly white. My friend also sent me a 

 number of the larvae — noted for their stinging hairs — of the " processionary 

 moth" (Cnethocampa processioned, I think), which he found feeding upon 

 the pines. They could not acclimatise themselves, although I kept them 

 indoors, and they all died, chiefly after spinning up. 



Another friend, Mr. J. Lyon Denson, of Chester, had a bicycle ride, in 

 mid August, through Southern Norway. "It had been," he writes, "hot 

 and without rain for five weeks before 1 arrived. The first few days were 

 fine, and plenty of mosquitos were biting, The remainder of my time was 

 cooler and showery, so I was not troubled with the mosquitos further. 

 Riding between Heen and Sorum, I came across scores of Vanessa antiopa 

 in splendid condition. They were flying chiefly in the glades of the pine 

 forest, and, notwithstanding my most energetic efforts, I failed to secure 

 a single specimen, so extremely quick were they, and so ill provided was I, 

 with only my little cycling cap. I offered half a kroner to a skydsgut who 

 was driving a carriole with luggage, if he would help me with his big felt 

 hat; but he shook his head and replied, in broken English, ' No; it is uot 

 good to catch them;' and I afterwards came to the same conclusion, as 

 I nearly lost my camera through leaving it behind after a long chase. On 

 another occasion, seeing a splendid specimen on something dark in the 

 road, fanning its wings in the bright sunshine, I carefully made a swoop on 

 it with my cap, but, alas ! the insect soared away with the utmost in- 

 difference, and I found that I had got only a dead frog ! Polyommatus 

 phlaas, hyccena alexin, Epinephele ianira, and 'skippers' were common. 

 The 'whites' were badly worn. I noticed a uumber of Vanessa urticte, 

 Gonopteryx rhamni, fritillaries like the one sent (Argynnis latona, and V. 

 atalanta. Hundreds of dragonflies, big fellows, were sailing about in all 

 directions. All these I noted nearly all the way from Christiania to Bergen. 

 At Oilo I beat the moth (it looks like a very rubbed Abraxas grossulariata) 

 out of some birch bushes, where I came across a large colony of the hill 

 ant, near the river, consisting of upwards of a hundred mounds, varying 

 from one to two feet in height, and all teeming with life." — J. Arkle; Chester. 



Early Appearance of Syrichthus alveolus. — In spite of the warm 

 winter, everything in this neighbourhood is backward ; but to my surprise 

 on April 27th I took a freshly emerged grizzled skipper in a clearing in 

 the woods bounding the old race-course. Two days later numbers were 

 out flying about in the same place. Its usual time of appearance here 

 is the latter half of May. Several specimens were extremely light in 

 colour. — F. V. Theobald; Wye Court, Wye, Kent, May 7th, 1898. 



Abundance of Crepidodera rufipes. — On April 13th I received 



