280 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



but rather to a natural cause — the usual disappearance of a species 

 from a locality no longer able to support it. Here and there about 

 the coombes there still remain patches where the growth is much 

 as it used to be, and it was only round about such places that arion 

 was to be taken. I have to thank this circumstance for my good 

 fortune in turning up avion larvte and pupae in early July. By a 

 lucky chance I was led to examine an ant's nest which was built up 

 against an upright slab of rock ; by pulling this away it left a clean- 

 cut section of the nest, and then exposed to view in the galleries 

 were four pupae, the lowest of them being about 4 in. below the 

 crown of the nest. The imago of this one would have had 6 or 

 7 in. of gallery to crawl through before reaching the open air. 

 From this situation one can quite understand the rubbed thorax 

 and bases of wings so often seen in specimens otherwise perfect. 

 Feeling greatly cheered after this find I procured a garden trowel, 

 and following the hint contained in the first nest turned over 

 several others. Most were blanks, but fifteen pup® were secured 

 altogether, and two full-fed larvas, which pupated on July 7th and 

 loth, the imagines emerging on August 3rd and 10th — rather 

 late dates it may be thought, but Mr. B. G. Adams, in last month's 

 ' Entomologist,' records an emergence even later. One of the 

 specimens from larva has dark grey fringes — a form I have not 

 previously seen. One nest had contained six pupas ; three of them 

 had already emerged when tm-ned up ; the remaining three produced 

 dwarfs — clear enough evidence that dwarf specimens are caused by 

 " short rations." Not only L. arion but also other noted Lepidoptera 

 of the district have suffered a like diminution. Of Le2}tosia {Leiico- 

 2)hasia) sinapis I saw but three specimens ; Diantlia'cia luteago v. 

 ficklini, nine in a fortnight (a lot of the food-plant, Silene viaritivia, 

 has been buried by falls of cliff, and the remaining portion has most 

 of its flowers destroyed by large black slugs). Eu^nthecia 

 constrictata, three imagines and one larva. Folia nigrocincta, 

 extremely scarce, larvee in ones only. Toxocaonpa cracca has main- 

 tained itself the best of all, but even so it is not in half its old 

 numbers ; its food-plant has also considerably lessened. Melitcea 

 artemis appears to have gone completely : not one was to be found, 

 although several suitable marshes are still there. Doubtless the 

 scarcity is partly due to the poor season, but after the war-time 

 respite — particularly in the case of the moths— a much better result 

 should have been seen. — G. B. Olivee ; High Wycombe. 



GoNEPTEEYX EHAMNi IN Cheshiee. — On Octobcr 2nd I took a 

 (^ Gonejiteryx rliamni in Pettj'pool Park, Delamere. This butterfly 

 is very rare in Cheshire. Day's list gives only six records for the 

 county, the most recent being in 1902. — A. H. Thompson ; 54, Church 

 Eoad, Northwich. 



CoLiAS hyale in Hampshiee : A Coreection. — Since writing a 

 note which appeared in the November number of the 'Entomologist ' 

 on the occurrence of Colias hyale on Portsdown, I have been 

 informed by Mr. Postans, of Portsmouth, who has been there, that 

 the four insects taken by the boys referred to are really specimens 

 of C. echisa, var. helice, and not hyale. I suggested to the boys 



