NOTKS AND OBSERVATIONS. 207 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Argynnis aglaia, ab. — In July last I was fortunate enough to 

 catch the most remarkable ab. of A. aglaia which I have ever seen. 

 All the wings of the insect, which is a $ , are yellow, not brown, 

 while the usual black markings of the upper side are replaced by 

 similar silver markings, which are very bright in certain lights. It 

 is in splendid condition, save for a slight congenital mark towards 

 the centre of the right hind wing. — F. B. Newnham ; Church 

 Stretton. 



Collateral Colour Variation of Argynnids. — Mr. Newnham 

 was good enough to communicate to me the capture of the A. aglaia, 

 which he has named ab. molybdcna described above. A bluish-leaden 

 hue of the nervures and part of the intraneural spaces and the wing 

 bases is sometimes displayed more or less pronouncedly in members 

 of the genus. For example, when collecting at Gavarnie, Hautes- 

 Pyr6n6es in July, 1906, I caught a beautiful female A. niobe, 

 var. eris suffused or glazed with the same leaden-blue colour. 

 I exhibited this at a meeting of the Entomological Society [cp. 

 ' Proc. Ent. Soc.,' 1906, p. 18). Five years later I missed a 

 female showing the same characteristics at almost the identical 

 spot where I made my capture ; and this leads me to suppose 

 that under certain (unascertained) conditions of climate or soil, a 

 strong tendency to bluishness prevails ; for I have seen in other 

 collections than my own examples of the kind. — H. Rowland- 

 Brown ; Harrow Weald, August 9th, 1917. 



Resting Habit of Pierids. — A propos to Mr. Adkin's interesting 

 note on the protective precautions of Pieris rajJCB [antea, p. 191), the 

 famous Leaf Butterfly of the East does not better assimilate its 

 surroundings than Goneptcryx rhamni. On a recent walk through 

 some Chiltern beech woods, I watched a fresh male settle down 

 among the 'pale green leaves of a stump upon which the sun was 

 shining obliquely. The light transparency of the folded wings and 

 the pattern thereof accorded exactly with the surrounding foliage, 

 and, a momentary distraction causing me to look away, I was quite 

 unable at the little distance I stood to distinguish leaf from insect 

 until the butterfly again rose from its sanctuary. — H. Rowland- 

 Brown ; Harrow Weald, August 9th, 1917. 



CupiDO minimus, second Emergence. — It may be of interest to 

 record a second emergence of C. minirmts in the Chilterns during 

 the first week of August. — H. Rowland-Brown. 



Variety of Female Euchloe cardamines. — On May 18th last 

 I had the good luck to breed from a local larva a most remarkable 

 variety of E. cardamines. In this specimen the area of the fore 

 wings, which in the male is orange, is thinly dusted with red-orange 

 on both fore wings. There are dashes of the abnormal colour on the 

 discal spot itself and also on the white wedge-shaped marks which 

 occur in the typical female of the species, but not in the male. The 

 specimen seems interesting to me as a probable instance of atavism, 

 for may we not suppose that in this species both sexes had originally 



