THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 339 



the following statistics: — October 14th, seventy-eight; 16lh, 

 eighty-two ; 18lh, twenty-five ; 20th, seventy ; 21st, fifly-four ; 

 23i(l, eighteen ; 24lh, seventy-two ; 25th, thirty-eight ; 28tb, 

 seventy-five; November 1st, seventy-seven (the intervening 

 clays were Sundays and rainy days) : total, nine hundred and 

 thirty-five. The numerical disparity in the sexes was at first 

 most remarkable, there being but twenty-three females to three 

 hundred and twenty-three males taken before the 14th of Octo- 

 ber, or fourteen males to one female : after that day the females 

 became more plentiful, until on the last day they exceeded 

 the males, the numbers being twenty-three females and 

 twenty males. The total number of females captured was one 

 hundred and ninety, reducing the average to four males 

 to one female. There were eight of the pale or Helice 

 variety taken. With very few exceptions all the captures 

 were made in two fields of wheat-stubble, together about 

 twenty-six acres in extent, situated close to the sea-shore, 

 very hilly, with a south-east aspect. An interesting circum- 

 stance occurred on the 14lh of October, when I went out to 

 the collector's hunting-ground. When I arrived he had been 

 there about an hour. Soon after he got there he saw a but- 

 terfly that had just escaped from the chrysalis: having 

 marked the spot of ground by placing a stone upright, we 

 easily found it again : it was in copulation with a male 

 Edusa, the female being a specimen of Helice, with her 

 wings not yet fully developed ; in fact the wings, when she 

 was first observed, were not at all unfolded, so that the col- 

 lector was not aware of its being Helice until he saw it the 

 second time. Is it usual for copulation to take place so soon 

 after emerging from the chrysalis ? For my part I have long 

 thought such to be the fact, or at all events within twenty- 

 four hours of the emergence of the female ; for whenever I 

 have taken butterflies in copulation I have always observed 

 that, however much the male may be faded, the female is 

 sure to be fresh, and in most instances the wings are yet in a 

 soft stale. — Stephen Cloyg ; East Looe, Cormcall. 



288. CoUas Eitusa in November. — This morning, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Owen, I took a ramble along the cliffs in 

 search of Colias Edusa : we saw -five specimens, and suc- 

 ceeded in capturing four : the thermometer at the time was 

 at 42^ — //. Hadfield ; Vetitnor, Isle of IViylit, Noiember 1. 



