NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 279 



:first Pieris rapes, which with Gonepteryx rhamni was then flying in 

 ■our garden. Celastrina argiolus was not seen till May 8th. Early 

 in this month some Ghcerocavipa elpenor were bred. On May 22nd 

 an empty cocoon of Plusia moncta was found in the garden — the 

 moth has been taken at light here. On July 21st an Aglais urticce. 

 flew into my bedroom and settled on the ceiling as if to hibernate, 

 but it flew out of the window again two days after. The first of the 

 second brood of Celastrina argiolus appeared on July 22nd. It was 

 with some surprise that we saw a Pararge egerides flying over the 

 flowers in the borders. Another — or it may have been the same 

 insect — was observed in the garden on September 1st. This is the 

 first instance, so far as I know, of this butterfly of woods and copses 

 visiting the garden. The experience of other lepidopterists would be 

 interesting. — Joseph Anderson ; Chichester. 



Some Notes on the Butterflies of the South Coast of the 

 Isle op Wight, 1919. — Having taken out a net on almost every sunny 

 •day throughout the season perhaps a few notes would be interesting. 

 P. hrassicce, P. rapa, P. napi : All fairly common, but not abundant. 

 E. cardanunes : Not plentiful. C. edusa, C. liyale : Not seen up to 

 mid-October ; plentiful on the Downs in good years, especially edusa. 

 G. rhamni : Never very common in the district ; I only saw five speci- 

 mens* D. paphia, A. aglaia : Both common on the Downs, but the 

 former is more plentiful in woods. B. euphrosyne : Uncommon. All 

 my captures were made in borders of woods. M. aurinia : I should 

 be glad to know if this insect still occurs along our coast. I have 

 searched many that appeared to be ideal marshy spots, but without 

 success. M. cinxia : This most interesting of our local butterflies 

 was extraordinarily abundant in the larval stage. When about full 

 grown an exceedingly cold south-west wind seemed to kill off a great 

 number, or there would probably have been a record emergence. The 

 preference of the larvae for the low stunted plants of the plantain 

 saves thousands from perishing as numbers of cattle are constantly 

 grazing in cinxia' s favourite haunts. I found both larvte and imagines 

 •quite two miles inland — in fact on the borders of one inland wood I 

 took ten cinxia to one euphrosyne. It is a pleasure to record that the 

 species is undoubtedly as common on the underclifl's to-day as when 

 first discovered by Edward Newman eighty years ago. A. urticce, : 

 Eairly common. E. polychloros : Scarce in our wood. V. io : Very 

 abundant. P. atalanta : Fairly common. No variations worth 

 taking. P. carded : Scarce this year. L. sibylla : So far as my 

 experience goes it is now restricted to one wood. I took a good 

 intermediate between type and nigrina, but spoilt by piece out of 

 lower wing. This species seems specially liable to injury of this 

 nature, undoubtedly caused by birds. L. sibylla is more pursued by 

 birds than any other butterfly I know of, and only its peculiar flight 

 saves it from being exterminated. I counted over twenty attempts at 

 capture by birds in less than fifteen minutes. Should a bird catch 

 sibylla by the lower wing the insect escapes with a piece out of this 

 wing owing to the impetus of its flight. This is probably the reason 

 •.so many examples of the species have the lower wings chipped. M. 

 galatea : Very abundant. P. egerides : Only one example seen. P. 



