154 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
able to offer any explanation, but in the case of Argynnis Paphia 
the ordinary form of female is of a decidedly greener hue than the 
male, so that the colour of the sexes does slightly differ, but in 
the variety Valezina the difference in colour from the male is 
quite as great as in the case of the three species before adverted 
to, and it is also well known that a male Valezina has never been 
captured. It is a very singular fact that Valezina is scarcely ever 
taken in any part of England but the New Forest, and I am 
informed that it rarely if ever occurs on the Continent. If, 
therefore, the New Forest were isolated from the rest of England, 
and any circumstances in the environment favoured in the 
struggle for existence the females having the dark green and black 
coloration of Valezina, I see no difficulty in believing that 
ultimately a species would be established in which the coloration 
of the males and females would differ as much as in those 
mentioned by Edwards. I have observed that the females of 
Paphia are very sluggish, and, on the contrary, the males are very 
active; it might be an advantage to the species that when the 
female rose on the wing, her colour being different from that of 
the male, she could be more readily detected, and would, therefore, 
have a better chance of being fertilized than females which were 
not so conspicuously coloured; Iam quite certain that butterflies 
do discern colour. I once saw a specimen of Pieris napi stop in 
its flight and descend upon a piece of white crockery ; and I have 
also seen a reddish brown leaf attract to the ground a male 
Melitea Euphrosyne. The coloration in many British butterflies, 
particularly amongst the Lycenide, in which group the females 
are generally much duller in colour than the males, would 
lead to the belief that it is an advantage for the former sex to be 
of a more sombre colour than the latter. This would be the case 
were A. Paphia so differentiated that the females were always of 
the hue of Valezina..—J. JennER WEIR. 
Lyc#zna Batica.—With reference to the notice in your 
number for March of the capture last year of Lycena Betica, 
it may interest your readers to know that while looking through 
some boxes of insects belonging to a friend of mine, I found, 
amongst a number of common English insects which he had 
purchased of a local collector on the Cotswold hills, a specimen 
of L. Batica. My friend had long lost sight of this Cotswold 
