CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS 309 



think, but I could not say for certain. Lycmna agon was abundant on the 

 common on the east side of the road, and Hesperia sylvanus and H. thaumas 

 were not uncommon. A female Fidonia piiiiana was also taken. To-day 

 I have seen a female Lyccena argiolus here (Sutton). Evidently the fine 

 weather is bringing on second broods. — D. P. Tubnkk; Sutton, Surrey, 

 July 18th, 190U. 



COLIAS EDDSA AND C. HYALE IN ENGLAND, 1900. 



(Continued from p. 280.) 



COLIAS EDUSA AND C. HYALE IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE. T Saw tWO C. hljole 



and one (J. edusa, flying in company, at Wisbech St. Mary, on Sept. 20th. 

 I had no net with me, and when I visited the spot on the two succeeding 

 days the wind was both cold and stiff, and Colias did not reappear. In 

 "the great edusa vear," in the seventies, they swarmed in that locality. — 

 Chas. Oldham ; Chelmsford Road, South Woodford, N.E., Oct. 13th, 1900. 



On Aug. 15th I took a specimen of C. hyale on the road between Soham 

 and Wicken Fen. — W. Gifford Nash; Bedford. 



Colias edusa and var. helice in Cornwall. — Between Aug, 29th 

 and Sept. 6th C. edusa was in great profusion near Falmouth. I first 

 found them on Aug. 29th, on the clover in a stubble-field sloping sheer up 

 from the sea-cliffs with an eastern aspect. I saw about twenty males, of 

 which I captured six, but saw only one female. The next day was almost 

 a repetition, except that I did not attempt any captures. The following day 

 not a single edusa was to be seen in the field, although conditions of 

 weather were just similar, and for a week after this I went daily to the field, 

 but saw only a single female, which circumstance seems very unaccountable. 

 However, on Aug. 31st I made tracks along the coast for about a couple of 

 miles, and happened on a lucerne field where edusa simply swarmed. On 

 this day females were much more abundant than males, but between 

 Aug. 3l8t and Sept. 8th I found them about evenly distributed. This field 

 was sloping sheer up from the sea-cliffs, and with both south and south-east 

 aspects. My experience was almost a repetition of that recorded by 

 Mr. Clogg in the second volume of the • Entomologist,' page 338, and 

 mentioned by Newman in his ' British Butterflies,' for between Aug. 31st 

 and Sept. 8th I could have taken in this single field seven or eight hundred 

 edusa without any difl&culty. I daily took them freshly emerged from the 

 chrysalis, and although I saw many before their wings were thoroughly 

 dried, I was not fortunate enough to find a single pupa-case. Let it not be 

 thought, however, that I am an "exterminator." I captured on an average 

 about forty per day for the eight days (on the look out for vars., of course), 

 but out of this number set only twenty-four males and twenty-four females 

 (which a brother and a friend will share), releasing all the others. With 

 delight I also record that from among the hundreds of edusa I saw, I 

 captured eleven specimeus of the beautiful female variety helice, all in 

 grand condition, and of varying shades of colour, from the extremes! variety. 

 There are four distinct transitional shades of colour amongst them. With 

 the exception of one morning, when I took four, a single helice only was 

 taken each day, and these freshly emerged ones. From careful observa- 

 tions, edusa and helice were "at home " between the hours of 11 a.m. and 

 3 p.m. ; either before or after, very few indeed were on the wing. I did 

 not see a single C. hyale. In this same field Plusia gamma swarmed also; 

 Vaiussa cardui was fairly abundant, but a few only V. atalanta were seeu. 



