NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 259 



nine of the best partlj' on that day and three days later when I again 

 found them. A friend who looked for them in the morning could not 

 find them. The only other flower I ever saw them visit'was hemp 

 agrimony. Butterflies generally appeared to be abundant, but this 

 being my first year here I cannot speak comparatively. 1 have 

 observed Angiades comma, however, on a small patch of down near 

 Alresford during several recent summers, but never saw it so abundant 

 as this year. I watched a female ovipositing. She laid a rather 

 large white egg on a very thin hair-like grass. The base of the egg 

 was broader than the grass and looked most insecure and conspicuous, 

 seeing that it had to stay there for six months, but no doubt she was 

 a better judge than I ! Vanessids were not common in the autumn. 

 It is the first summer for years that I have not seen Pyrmneis cardui, 

 and I only saw P. atalanta once or twice. A single Eugonia 2^oly- 

 chloros kindly came into my study on August 3rd. Vanessa io was 

 the commonest of the group. I found 37 species of butterflies 

 within a ten- mile radius and expect to add more in a year or two. 

 Beating larvte of Thera junvperata near Alresford (since emerged), 

 I found a battered Laspeyria flexula in the umbrella (August 26th). 

 I found larvte of Sphinx ligustri only half grown at the end of 

 September, and the last " went down " on October 8th — a very late 

 date. Eucosmia certata came to light in May and I found the larva? 

 in June on the holly-leaved barberry [Malionia) in the garden. There 

 is no wild Berberis in this part of the world, so that this must be an 

 isolated and surviving colony. (The house and garden date from 

 1642 A.D.) On June 17th I found numbers of Hepiahts liectus 

 hovering over a patch of nettles at sunset. There was no sign of 

 Pteris aquilina within a mile, and I feel sure it has some other food- 

 plant — possibly the nettle. I also captured one H.fusconebulosa, but 

 that was near some bracken. Speaking of food-plants I think there 

 is no ground for the belief that Bapta himaculata prefers wild cherry. 

 I found it in some numbers in old sloe-bushes in a wood, while a 

 patch of wild cherry in a neighbouring locality produced none. 

 I wonder if other localities are experiencing an extraordinary swarm 

 of " Ladybirds " this autumn. My room is full of them trying to 

 hibernate in clumps in corners of the windows, etc., and they are 

 everywhere. Pararge megcera is thinly distributed about here ; P. 

 egeria var. egerides is scarce — I saw only one in Alice Holt — but it is 

 commoner about Selborne. — E. A. C. Stowell ; Eggar's Grammar 

 School, Alton, Hants. 



CoLiAs EDusA IN SCOTLAND. — I saw a Specimen of C. edusa 

 fly over the river Don here on September 4th, and I saw another 

 that was captured at Craibstone four or five miles from the city. — 

 L. G. EssoN ; 6, Esslemont Avenue, Aberdeen. 



CoLiAs EDUSA AT Chichester. — Two or three specimens of 

 Colias edusa were seen flying in clover-fields in this locality by my 

 friend and neighbour, Mr. Humphry, the last noticed on September 

 18th. The butterfly has occurred only very sparingly here for 

 several years past so far as our own observations go. — Joseph 

 Anderson ; Chichester. 



ISSORIA (ArGYNNIS) LATHONIA AND COLIAS EDUSA AT FOLKESTONE 



