156 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
over the holly when in bloom. It is also partial to the blossoms 
of the Laurustinus, but, as far as I have noticed, only for the 
sweets obtained therefrom. In August I have seen the females 
flitting over the ivy, and last season captured one on bramble 
blossoms, but it was only feeding on them. In parts of Dorset- 
shire also, on the chalk formation, I have also noticed it at two 
seasons of the year. I feel confident that in both these localities 
it is double-brooded. ‘The last two seasons here it has been 
quite scarce, and up to the present time this season I have not 
yet seen it. In the early stage of its existence I think it is much 
preyed upon by those insect-loving birds the chiffchatf and 
willow wren. It will be remembered that Westwood as well as 
French entomologists mention Rhamnus frangula as one of its 
food plants.—'T. B. Jerrgerys; Clevedon, April 27, 1886. 
Foop-PpLants oF MeELir£a atrHaLia.—In his “Notes from 
Abbots Wood” (EKntom. xviii. 265), Mr. W. F. Hawes speaks of 
Melampyrum pratense as the food-plant of the larva of Melitea 
athalia, and I should very much like to know upon what other 
plants it has been found in this country. I believe that before 
my discovery of it on Melampyrum, in 1871, it was supposed to 
feed exclusively upon Plantago lanceolata ; but since then I have 
also found it in abundance on Digitalis purpurea, and a single 
larva on T'eucrium scorodonia. Last spring I could find no larve, 
though the perfect insects had been unusually abundant the 
previous season. ‘The reason of my want of success was that the 
usual food-plants were absent, for, though I searched many 
acres, I could find no Digitalis, and only a couple of small plants 
of Melampyrum. In June I made a special journey to the locality 
to see whether the perfect insects would put in an appearance, 
and, somewhat to my surprise, found them almost as common as 
usual; but those which occurred over that portion of the wood 
where I had searched for larvee were, with few exceptions, of 
little more than half the usual size; whereas in the part which I 
had not searched they were quite of the normal size, and there I 
found a fair quantity of JMelampyrum growing. I conclude, 
therefore, that the small specimens were produced from larve 
which either fed up upon an insufficient supply of their proper 
food, or upon some substitute—possibly T’ewertwm—which did 
not nourish them properly, and that their inferior size was thus 
due to semi-starvation.—W. H. Harwoop; Colchester. 
