NOTRS AND OBSERVATIONS. 235 



Prout, which affected the thyme and marjoram. A bed of petunias 

 on the sea front, marked for the wandering Sphingids, was burnt 

 black by the wind, while the hedges and trees, especially the elders in 

 exposed places, were brown as in October, or entirely stripped of their 

 fohage. — H. Eowland-Brown ; Harrow Weald, September 9th, 1917. 



COLIAS EDUSA, SpHINX CONVOLVULI, AND LyTTA VESICATORIA 



IN Dorsetshire.— Perhaps this season has produced conditions 

 specially favourable to insect immigration. As in Sussex, both 

 Colias edusa and Pyranieis cardui are present here. But the latter, 

 I fancy, appears every year near Winfrith. I picked up, too, on 

 July 18th, near Owermoigue, a mangled specimen of Sphhix con- 

 volvuli. Last month I saw other specimens hovering over the 

 honeysuckle arch in my garden on which I took so many in August, 

 September, and October, 1901. I have already taken four, the only 

 ones captured since that year. Although the habit of dancing, in 

 isolated companies, over particular sprays or other selected points of 

 land or water, is common among insects, I do not know any beetles, 

 except, perhaps, the Melolonthffi, that have this habit, save Lytta 

 vesicatnria. My examples hovered over the ash, just as do the 

 Adelas, or Gnophria rubricollis, over their chosen branches. Several 

 bushes, at intervals, were favoured, but ahvays ash, although privet 

 was plentiful around. My insects, like those noted by Mr. Guermon- 

 prez, fed voraciously, when settled, and, I think, only the (^ 's sported 

 in the air, possibly round the ? 's. The habit of gregarious flitting, 

 in the case of parasitic Hymenoptera, is, probably, often due to the 

 presence of the hosts attracting the $ 's, which are then sought by 

 the (? 's. But in the case of Lepidoptera, Trichoptera, Ephemerop- 

 tera, and Diptera, the causes are, perhaps, partly sexual and partly 

 a mere gambolling and playfulness in the pure enjoyment of genial 

 weather. — F. H. Haines, Brookside, Winifrith, Dorset, September 

 1st, 1917. 



Euvanessa antiopa in 1917. 



Surrey. — On August 2nd, whilst collecting at Oxshott, in Surrey, 

 I saw a Euanessa antiopa. It was flying low, so that I had a clear 

 view of its upper wings, and as it passed within a yard of me I am 

 positive of its identity. I chased, but failed to capture it, as it 

 quickly mounted over some high trees. — W. Dallas ; 13, Cromwell 

 Koad, Wimbledon, S.W. 19. 



Hertfordshire. — On August 23rd, a perfect specimen of the 

 Camberwell Beauty was brought alive to my boy. It was captured 

 entangled in a cobweb in a high jack-boot (of all strange places) in a 

 motor-garage. The insect is in very fresh condition, the marginal 

 band of the wings being yellow, not white, as in many captured 

 English specimens. — A. T. Goodson ; Tring. 



A splendid specimen, apparently freshly emerged, was seen in 

 Hitchin Park on August 10th, and again at the same spot on 

 August 15th. A week later anotlier specimen was reported as seen 

 in a garden in the town about half a mile from the place above 

 mentioned. Probably this may have been the same individual. — ■ 

 A, H. Foster; Susses House, Hitchin, 



