220 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the warmer latitude of 32°, where summer commences much 

 earlier, eight or nine specimens were found at Yuyama, 11 th 

 May, 1881, resting in the crevices of the bark on a prostrate 

 oak, and in this position, owing to their subereous form and 

 colour, they were very difficult to see ; so much so, indeed, that 

 although the specimens were clustered together they were only 

 detected one by one at intervals. A keen native collector and 

 myself were bending over the trunk in the eager excitement of 

 capturing a curious and somewhat rare species, yet we failed to 

 see them at once, although our fingers each time a specimen was 

 taken must have almost touched its fellow left behind. In the 

 position described, which may or may not be a usual one, the 

 insects so closely resembled their environment that they were a 

 perfect example of the phase of Natural History which is 

 commonly called mimicry. I also obtained it at Sapporo, about 

 lat. 42°, in August ; and Mr. Pascoe has one from Siberia. 



Wimbledon, August 10, 1887. 



LYC^NID^ IN NORTH KENT. 

 By Richard South, F.E.S. 



In his critical notice of my remarks on Mr. Sabine's varieties, 

 Mr. Tutt appears to have failed, either in grasping the point of 

 my observations or in making himself acquainted with what I 

 actually wrote. One way or the other he has fallen into error. For 

 instance, he says (Entom. 207), " The hybrid theory I consider 

 is too far-fetched." Now if Mr. Tutt had read the whole paragraph 

 wherein the word "hybrid" occurs, he would have found that I 

 not only wrote " hybrid or, perhaps more correctly, mongrel 

 offspring of a union between icarus and hellargus," but that I 

 inclined to the mongrel view, and not to hybridism. To have 

 entertained the latter, I must have admitted icarus and hellargus 

 to be pure species, which I do not admit. 



Lyccena icarus, Polyommatus lihl^.as, and Thecla ruhi are 

 probably all descended from a common ancestor ; but ] should 

 not suppose a fertile crossing between icarus and either of the 

 other species probable, or yet between P. phlcsas and T. ruhi. If 

 any such intercourse did occur and there were issue, these would 

 be hybrids. In the case of L. icarus and L. hellargus we have two 



