NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 145 
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
Dusky Mane Form or Dryas Papuia.—I have lately compared 
the males of Dryas paphia taken last year in the Bucks. Chiltern 
Hills with examples in my collection from numerous localities at 
home and abroad. Those from the New Forest and Monkswood, 
and from the Chilterns in former years, are all of the usual foxy or 
fiery red-brown to light bright brown colour, and the same may be said 
of the continentals extending in observation, east to west, from the 
South Carpathians to the South-west Pyrenees. The duskiness is 
chietly in the basal area of the fore and hind wings, and due to the 
darkening of the hairs therein. D. paphia is not common, as a rule, 
at the particular spot chosen for observation, but in August, 1920, it 
was wide-spread and frequent together with Argynunis cydippe (for 
many years also scarce hereabouts and in one or two wanting, or, at 
least, so rare as to have been overlooked), the dusky form being 
predominant and in some places the only form on the wing. Male 
variation of this species, other than by failure of pigment, is rare in 
my experience; but it is noteworthy that in nearly all examples of 
Argynnids and Brenthids from Central France, Auvergne and the 
Cevennes, I detect an inclination towards a clear clay ground-colour— 
that is to say, in a direction precisely the opposite of the Chiltern 
paphia. On the other hand, as far as I can see, the Chiltern females 
were normal. Otherwise I might have been led to conclude that 
the duskiness of the males is attributable in some way to the damp 
and unsettled weather which prevailed during their pre-imaginal 
stages, though, of course, the dark form valesina occurs with the 
typical light females in the New Forest and elsewhere, whatever 
may be the meteorological conditions during development. I have 
never heard of valesina in Buckinghamshire. If any collectors have 
met with it in the county will they kindly notify the fact without 
mentioning the exact locality of capture.—H. Rowranp-Browy ; 
Harrow Weald, May Ist, 1921. 
ON THE APPEARANCE OF ANOSIA PLEXIPPUS IN Britain.—Hitherto 
it has always been considered that the occurrence in the British 
Isles of Anosia plexippus has so far as known been due to voluntary 
immigration. But, as I have previously stated (‘The Field,’ April 
17th, 1915), it is probable the specimens which have been seen 
and captured in this country have received assisted passages across 
the Atlantic on board ships. But at that time no proof existed as 
no observations of the kind had been recorded. It is therefore with 
considerable interest that I am now able to place on record the 
following facts regarding the appearance of this American species in 
England under certain conditions, but whether such applies to all 
the thirty specimens observed and captured in the British Isles and 
others elsewhere in Europe cannot be ascertained. For the following 
very interesting facts I am indebted to Mr. Geo. B. Pearson, who 
writes to me as follows: ‘ While crossing on the way to Jamaica | 
learned that the purser of the boat (Mr. F. W. Buxtin) was a collector. 
I soon made friends with him and asked him the question how 
Anosia plexippus gets over to England. He at once said, ‘1 will 
tell you. When we leave Norfolk, Va., in the autumn there are 
ENTOM.—JUNE, 1921. N 
