266 THE ENTOMOLOGIST, 



a short distance behind it. I tried the experiment the other day, and 

 the result was perfectly satisfactory, — the shadow fell upon the screen 

 some inches to the side of the object. — H. G. Knaggs ; Folkestone, 

 September, 1897. 



Strange Resting-places of Pieris rap^ and Satyrus semele. — 

 During one of the brief periods of sunshine with which we were 

 favoured on some of the later days of August, I had occasion to leave 

 one place of business in a busy London thoroughfare, and proceed 

 to another some hundred yards or so further on in the same street. 

 On my way I happened to meet an acquaintance with whom I 

 stood talking for perhaps ten minutes, during which time the sun 

 became obscured by clouds. I was wearing an ordinary straw hat at 

 the time, and on reaching my destination and hanging my hat on a 

 peg, I was not a little surprised to find a female Pieris rajm resting 

 upon it. The butterfly was certainly not on the hat when I started on 

 my journey, and I have no doubt that it settled there when the sun 

 ceased to shine, selecting the hat as a secure resting-place by reason 

 of the similarity of its colour to that of its own under side. Earlier in 

 the month I had been staying at Bournemouth, and had spent many 

 hours on the heaths and downs of the adjacent coasts, frequently being 

 accompanied by my son. Both of us were in the habit of wearing grey 

 flannel trousers, and I was much struck by the persistent way in which 

 Sati/rus semele, which was exceedingly abundant at the time, rested 

 upon them almost whenever we stood still for a few moments, often 

 returning again and again when driven away. I have little doubt that 

 in this case also the similarity of the colour of the material rested upon 

 to that of the part of the insect most exposed when at rest was the 

 attraction. — Robt. Adkin ; Lewisham, September, 1897. 



Varieties of Melanippe montanata. — At a meeting of the South 

 London Entomological and Natural History Society, held on August 

 12th last, Mr. J. N. Smith exhibited a specimen of M. montanata, in 

 which the ground colour was heavily suffused with leaden grey; this was 

 one of a pair of similar aberrations of the species taken June lOfch, 

 1895, by Mr. Fitzgerald in a lane near Dursley. A somewhat similar 

 specimen, from Longleat, in Wiltshire, is figured in the ' Entomologist' 

 for 1881 (xiv. pi. 1, fig. 20). 



Variety of Catocala nupta. — On August 8rd there emerged in 

 my breeding-cage a variety of Catocala nupta, having the usually red 

 portions both of the upper and under sides of the hind wings brown, 

 with perhaps a very faint tinge of red. The larva was found on willow 

 in the garden here. — E. V. Hall; 4, The Avenue, Brondesbury, N.W. 



[Similar aberrations of this species have been obtained in the 

 London district before (see Entom. xxv. 243, and xxix. 315). There 

 is also an example, taken on August 10th, 1895, on Wandsworth 

 Common, in the National Collection at South Kensington. — Ed,] 



Variety of Nemeophila plantaginis. — About the middle of last 

 June, I took a fine male specimen of Chdonia (Nemeophila) piantafjinis, 

 flying on the moors at Penmaenmawr, North Wales, in which the 

 ground colouring of the hind wings is quite white instead of bright 



