1919 IN THE NEW FOREST. 7 



ance, became a veritable plague, and never before have I been 

 so bitten ! I give a brief list of " blood-suckers," chiefly inter- 

 esting because they were all taken in the act of biting ray person 

 one afternoon in July : Ctilex cantans. Hcematopota pluvialis 

 ("Cleg "), Therioplectes tropicus, Th. distinguendo,Yevi\, Atylotas 

 falvus (not uncommon locally, a beautiful thing in life), Tahanus 

 hovinus (on my stocking), T. aittumnalis, '/'. bromius, T. macidi- 

 cornis (the smallest Br. " Gad."), Chrysops cceciiiifus (in scores), 

 and one C. quadrata. 



For several days in July I was forced to give up collecting 

 owing to the sight of both eyes almost disappearing, chiefly the 

 work of Chrysops ccBcutiois, who delighted to bite on the forehead, 

 just over the eye. 



Another handsome although somewhat repulsive plague was 

 Th. distinquendo, Verr., but being larger and noisy was easier to 

 avoid. T. bovinus settled to bite (as noted above) but did not 

 actually penetrate. 



(For identiflcation of several of above I am indebted to Miss 

 E. K. Pearce, of Bournemouth, and Mr. N. 0. F. Pearce, of Cam- 

 bridge, without whose kind aid a number of my " blood-suckers " 

 would yet remain unnamed.) 



The great Tabanns bovinus* was continually "booming" 

 around throughout July and August, but seldom settled until 

 late in the afternoon, when it sometimes frequented decayed and 

 fallen tree-trunks, as I discovered whilst searching for the quaint- 

 looking dipteron Alophora hemiptera. During August, whilst 

 armed with a tube of '880 ammonia ready for immediate appli- 

 cation, I rather encouraged T. bovinus to bite my hand as an 

 experiment (probably for both of us !), but without success. Such 

 shyness has its good points. Whilst battling with the flies I 

 managed to find time to search the three large " fritillaries " and 

 Limenitis sibylla for aberrations, with a fair amount of luck. Sad 

 to say, although early in the season, the better forms were con- 

 siderably worn, especially those approaching ab. nigrina of the 

 latter species, of which I found three females so hopelessly worn 

 that I could do nothing with them except try and obtain ova. 

 They died without laying, however, and but for a fine and perfect 

 intermediate and two S D. paphia with confluent spots, I should 

 have had a very poor share of this year's varieties, although 

 minor forms of B. selene and .4. cydippe were not infrequent. A 

 fine $ paphia with confluent spots was also seen — and missed ! 



Var. valezina \ was rather scarce near Lymington, although 

 very fine and large, but on higher land towards Cadnam it in one 



• Abundant near Lymington. I caught 20 "? $ one afternoon in July, when 

 flying round me, and probably missed half as many again. 



t Almost all typical J paphia from the New Forest are more green than brown, 

 approaching valezina. In the Midland woods, where the butterfly swarms, the 

 reverse is the case, and they seem a different race altogether — especially noticeable 

 on the under-side. 



