252 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Mr. Whitaker worked hard among the Lepidoptera, but un- 

 fortunately both "light" and "sugar" were almost useless, and 

 when such is the case in the Broads collecting is almost neces- 

 sarily a failure. Papilio machaon was still out in numbers, but 

 was " on its last legs," most of the specimens being tattered or 

 worn ; its eggs and young larvae were, however, found freely, 

 proving that it must have been abundant before our arrival. 

 Argynnis selene, too, was plentiful ; this species seems equally at 

 home in wood, on mountain, or on fen. The moths included 

 Dicranura furcula, Chcerocampa elpenor not uncommon at Iris 

 flowers, Nudaria senex, Apamea iinaniniis, Dianthoncia cucuhali, 

 Plusia festucce, Ahrostola urtica, Hydroecia unca abundant, 

 Acronycta leporina, the specimens considerably darker than we 

 expected to find them so far south, Acidcdia wimutata abun- 

 dant, Timandra ainataria common, Collix sparsata, Lobophora 

 sexalisata, Hyria auroraria just getting well out as we came 

 away, Phihalapteryx lignata abundant, Hydrocampa stratiotalis, 

 Herminia crihralis abundant, Schoenobius mucronellus, Chilo pliray- 

 metellus abundant, NemopJiora metaxella and many others. 



Edgertou, Huddersfield : Sept. 9th, 1904. 



ON A DARK FOEM OF ISC UN UR A ELEGANS (Female). 



By F. W. and H. Campion. 



On various occasions during the present season and the last 

 we have noted the occurrence in Epping Forest of a dark form 

 of Ischniira elegans (female), which, from the circumstance of its 

 appearing in two different years, we are inclined to regard as a 

 permanent form. We possess six specimens in all ; the dates of 

 the several captures being August 2ord and September 1st, 1903, 

 and July 3rd, 17th, and 24th, and September 4th, 1904. The 

 specimen of July 24tli last was at the time of capture paired 

 with a normally-coloured male ; at the same time we took 

 another pair of the same description, but the female escaped 

 from the net. All these insects are characterized by the total 

 absence (with the exception to be mentioned herein) of the blue 

 colour which ordinarily imparts such a handsome appearance to 

 the individuals of both sexes. The blue of the spots behind the 

 eyes and the blue colour on the thorax observable in the typical 

 females are in our aberrant specimens replaced by an olive-green 

 colour. In normal /. elegans the eighth abdominal segment is 

 light blue in both sexes ; in the dark females the colour may be 

 described as dark dust-colour or dark biscuit-brown ; the re- 

 maining segments are black or green-black. The specimen 



