90 THE ENTOMOLOGIST, 



males went at from £12 10s. to £5 10s., females £11 to £5 10s., 

 undersides £7 10s. aild £4, and a "pupa case" £4. The historic 

 series of the Eudorea?, contained in three cabinet drawers, was 

 offered in one lot and made £12 10s., while the no less famous series 

 of Peronea cristana, which occupied two whole drawers and contained 

 the type-specimens of several of the named forms, ran up to £38 before 

 falling into hands where we are glad to know that it is likely to be of 

 real scientific value. Many other lots of the small fry also made 

 good prices — a healthy sign as showing that these too often neglected 

 groups have still some interest for the more intelligent workers. The 

 few books included in the sale went irregularly ; a lot consisting of 

 two copies of ' Stanton's Manual,' the one interleaved with F. Bond's 

 notes and the other Webb's own copy, also with his notes, sold for 

 65s., and 'Barrett's Lepidoptera,' large paper edition with coloured 

 plates, made £26. Cabinets appeared to be less eagerly sought than 

 they were a year or two ago, a really good forty-drawer making £44, 

 and a forty-four £48. The total of the day's sale exceeded £800, thus 

 bringing the total realised for the whole collection with its appurten- 

 ances to within a few pounds of £3000 — an amount, we believe, well 

 in excess of anything previously obtained for any private entomo- 

 logical collection at public auction. — E. A. 



Notes on Paeaege meg^ra and P. egeeia.^ — As an indication 

 of the remarkable forwardness of the season it may be of interest to 

 note that on the 17th and 18th inst. I beat eight full-grown larvic of 

 Pararge megcsra. A few of these had already hung themselves up for 

 pupation on the 19th. I have on three different occasions bred 

 interesting forms of Pararge egeria by forcing the larvae, which 

 usually hibernate. Of three larvae thus reared, 1903-1904, one 

 emerged a variety. In 1905-1906 I repeated the experiment with 

 better success, obtaining eight well-marked forms out of eighteen 

 pupte. This last winter a repetition of the conditions resulted in 

 further varieties. I do not give the number as all the imagines have 

 not yet emerged. The varieties bred are of three forms : (1) Upper side 

 — some of the central spots are missing. Under side, fore wings — 

 middle discoidal cell-spot much intensified. Hind wings nearly 

 uniform in tint, with almost all transverse markings absent and the 

 marginal dark shade much intensified to a dark purplish tint. (2) A 

 general lightening of the ground tint of the upper side to a pale 

 greyish-brown. (3) A smudging of most of the pale spots on the 

 upper side and obliteration of the apical eye-spot. — E. D. Morgan ; 

 " Freeden Cottage," 27, Sanford Crescent, Chelston, Torquay, 

 February 20th, 1920. 



Scarcity of Aglais urtice. — When reading the interesting 

 notes of Mr. Eowland-Brown and others on the above subject, it 

 must have occurred to many how much entomological knowledge 

 is lost through scattered and imperfect statistics and observations. 

 Such partial statistics are very apt to lead us to erroneous conclusions. 

 Surely the time has come for better methods? The number of 

 lepidopterists has increased so rapidly that if the country was 

 divided into 150 or 200 divisions there could certainly be found at 

 least one collector in each district willing to aid any organised effort 



