188 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Again, in 1918, there was hardly a tree throughout the whole district 

 that was not affected, but this year one may see three trees standing 

 close together, of which two are absolutely stripped of their leaves, 

 while the tliird is apparently untouched, or several trees standing 

 together quite green while all those around them are stripped. — 

 Egbert Adkin ; Eastbourne, June, 1919. 



A Hunt foe Zyg^na Achillea. — My entomological friends 

 warned me that a hunt for Z. achillcce was likely to prove a wild 

 goose-chase and to have very little chance of success. But nothing 



venture, nothing have. So my friend E , on whose keenness and 



good eyesight I could rely, and myself determined on making the 

 effort. The information at our disposal was certainly but very 

 meagre. We knew that a collector named Eenton was reported to have 

 taken the insect ,some ten years ago in the Oban district, and that 

 Mr. Sheldon in 1898 took a worn Zygaenid at the head of Loch 

 Etive which he thought might prove to be of this species. But so 

 far as we could ascertain no steamers were running this summer on 

 Loch Etive, and so that locality had to be "ruled out" for our 

 expedition. Eventually we fixed on a spot some twenty miles from 

 Oban which we thought might prove likely, and there we arrived on 

 the afternoon of June 26th. The following day we tramped a good 

 many miles, but without seeing a sign of what we wanted. And this 

 was hardly, surprising, as neither of us had any idea whether to 

 search the hill-tops or the lower levels — whether achillece, like 

 exulans, loved the breezy heights, or, like filipendulce, the milder 

 climate of the sea-level. Though unsuccessful at first we were not 

 prepared to own ourselves beaten, and it was not long before we 



were out again in a fresh direction, when suddenly E spotted a' 



pair of " Burnets " in cop., which needed only a cursory examination 

 to cause us both to exclaim "Acliillcal " Guided by this find we 

 soon came across others, and eventually found that the insect occurred 

 nearly everywhere in suitable spots and was certainly the common 

 " Burnet " of this district. We found it to frequent dry and sheltered 

 banks covered with an abundance of mixed vegetation — heath, bird's- 

 foot trefoil, wild thyme, vetch, Potentilla, etc. — and I am inclined 

 to think its chief food-plant is probably Lotus corniculatns. It 

 occurred at all elevations up to 300 ft., and I have no doubt higher. 

 Mixed with it was Z. filipendula, but for each one of the latter 

 there were at least ten of ackillea. And the two species are abso- 

 lutely distinct, for filipcndulcB is half as large again, is far more 

 thickly scaled and is entirely distinct in colour, being steely blue- 

 black, with rich rose-coloured spots and hind wings, while achiUeca 

 is of a dull — almost grey — olive-green black, with pale-pink coloured 

 spots and hind wings. And most noticeable of all, while the legs of 

 filil^enduloi are black, those of achillece (like exulans) are light coloured 

 — almost white — along the inside of the tibia and tarsus. The two 

 outside spots of achilleoi invariably coalesce, and there is a con- 

 siderable tendency for the basal spots or dashes to run into the 

 central pair (or one of them) of spots. We were not blessed with 

 very fine weather, but the insect seemed to fly at almost any horn- 

 when the sun shone — preferably, it seemed to me, between eleven 



