8 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



locality actually outnumbered the type. They were poor and 

 undersized specimens, however, when compared with the Lyming- 

 tonians, which are bred in a moist situation. Limenitis sibylla 

 was uncommon in many woods [e. g. Queen's Bower), but I found 

 it in extraordinary numbers in a damp and rather gloomy part 

 of the forest a stone's throw from the Lymington river, where 

 females, basknig in the sun on the bracken fronds, attracted 

 as many as a dozen males at a time, and as D. paphia and the 

 exquisite var. anceps oi Calopteryx virgo were in numbers all 

 round, the combination of colours was extremely beautiful. 



Up to the middle of July Apatura iris failed to put in an 

 appearance, but on the 17th I captured a fine J under very tame 

 circumstances. I was after Odonata at the time, when my brother 

 (a non-entomologist), who was with me, 8udd(3nly said, " That's 

 the first White Admiral w'e've seen here," and pointed to a butter- 

 fly just about to settle on a sallow bush overhanging the stream. 

 I looked in the direction pointed out, and seeing at once what it 

 was, made a swoop with the net and captured with ridiculous 

 ease the first "Emperor" I had seen since 1911 (in Monk's 

 Wood, Hunts.). No doubt iris when flying low is sometimes 

 passed over in the New Forest in mistake for large $ L. sibylla, 

 as collectors in search of the greater prize give most of their 

 attention to the tree-tops. No further specimen of ij-is gladdened 

 my eye, and it is undoubtedly scarce in the Forest, although, as 

 I have hinted, it may sometimes be overlooked. 



I was too late for larvse-beating in the spring, and don't know 

 if any were taken. Whilst on larvas it may not be out of place to 

 mention the paucity of " Hairstreaks " (both larvae and imagines) 

 in the Forest. Quite a small wood in Hunts, and Northants. will 

 produce the caterpillars of four species in the course of a few 

 hours' beating (and one can net C. mhi and C. palcBmon in the 

 intervals !). Here the only species that can be beaten regularly 

 is Z. quercus, and even the imago is not very common. What a 

 difference when compared with such a classic collecting-ground 

 as Monk's Wood, when, having beaten your full complement of 

 priini larva in early spring, the butterfly later becomes quite a 

 nuisance locally, following you about and getting in your way 

 and distracting you from more serious business ! For priini is 

 only a thing of beauty when bred ; directly it leaves the pupa- 

 case its only object in life — beyond love-making — seems to be to 

 reduce its wings to rags in the quickest time possible, its bafiling 

 flight in and out of the sloe bushes seeming especially adapted 

 for the purpose of scale denudation. 



Nevertheless I should have been only too pleased to see this 

 attractive little species flying about the Pniniis in the Forest, 

 and all being well next year shall turn out a few pairs in my 

 favourite wood (private) and see how they get on. Should any 

 straycollector there see them flying, I hope he will have read this ! 



