4 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Towards the end of May, 1908, we received a small box of 

 pupae from the south of France. These were ah'eady in a some- 

 what advanced state of " ripeness," and the first imagines began 

 to appear before the end of the month. The weather was 

 glorious, and a pairing was observed on the evening of May 31st. 

 A conspicuous spot of black ink was put on each of the fore 

 wings of the female. This was the only cleopatra marked with 

 ink during the season. As June wore on many ova were laid on 

 R. alatermis and R. hyhridiis, but the marked female was never 

 observed to lay. Looking through the notes made during that 

 summer, I see that she was come across every now and then, 

 always at rest in some quiet part of the garden. She was 

 noticed at rest in certainly three different situations, and the 

 final one selected for the winter was on ivy facing due south. 

 It seemed most improbable to us at the time that a 

 female which had paired in May should defer laying 

 until the following year, but such proved to be the case. 

 Surviving a winter of much frost and snow, she resumed 

 activity on April 6th and laid her first egg on tbe 19th. All 

 through May and June she was to be seen on fine days feeding 

 and laying. On July 9th she paired for the second time ; but 

 on the 23rd of the month she collapsed from old age, having 

 achieved fourteen months : perhaps a record for a butterfly. 

 We have had varying luck with this species during the winter, 

 but I see from notes that no less than sixty-two fertilised females 

 came through the winter 1910-11. During the summer of 1910 

 we carried out a little experiment with a view to finding out the 

 proportion of females that lay over to those that deposit the 

 same year. Ninety females were turned out during the early 

 part of the summer, and every one that w^as found paired was 

 aiarked with black ink on one wing. By working at night with 

 an acetylene lamp it was quite easy to spot them. After a few 

 fine days every one of our ninety females had an ink mark. All 

 had paired. As soon as ovipositing commenced we used to net 

 the layers and mark them with red ink. Twenty-nine or thirty 

 females were so marked ; so it worked out at two females hiber- 

 nating before laying to every one that laid at once. 



It has been suggested that some of the extraordinarily fresh 

 specimens which are noticed on the wing in early spring may 

 have wintered as pupfe, and it is quite possible that this is indeed 

 the case. "We notice females depositing quite late in the autumn, 

 and larvse are often found still feeding on the evergreen R. 

 alatermis in November. Our climate is, of course, fatal to these 

 late feeders ; but such may not be the case in the more genial 

 Midi. We have often watched pup?e all through the winter, and 

 have kept them alive perhaps till March, but have never succeeded 

 in getting them to emerge in the end. In April, 1912, however, 

 a perfectly fresh male cleopatra appeared in the garden that 



