268 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. ©. \ 
down for quite half-an-hour when it came back, flew about the 
herbaceous border and then settled in an apple tree. I got close 
to it, tried to net it but the branch baulked me. It flew wildly 
about for a few moments and again settled on another apple tree. 
This time I was more fortunate, and had secured the only Camberwell 
Beauty that I had ever seen alive in this country. It is a beautiful 
specimen. I set it before starting, and it is now safely in the cabinet. 
The next best British specimen in my cabinet was found by my 
wife. She entered a cottage near St. Osyth’s in Essex to escape 
a heavy shower. In the fireplace she saw a sheet of brown paper 
with unset butterflies pinned all over it for a summer decoration. 
Among the Peacocks, Red Admirals, etc., she saw a Camberwell 
Beauty, which the old lady in the cottage told her she caught with 
the other butterflies in her front garden. The specimen had not, 
of course, been set out, but simply pinned through the body with 
the wings extended upwards at an angle of about 45 degrees. 
After telling the old lady that the insect was rare and valuable, 
and giving her a small present, she told my wife that if she would 
leave our address she would send some more. Needless to say this 
promise has never been fulfilled. Why the species is so rare in 
this country I cannot understand, as I have often seen it abroad, e. g. 
in Norway, South Europe, Canada, ete——Freprrick J. HANBURY; 
Brockhurst, East Grinstead. 
CHRYSOPHANUS PHLHAS, VAR. ALBA, IN SussEx.—Baron J. A. 
Bonck informs me he captured on May 26th last a perfect specimen 
of Chrysophanus phleas, var. alba, on his shoot near East Grinstead, 
where he found phigas common, and also succeeded in taking several 
light-coloured examples, as well as different forms of var. caruleo- 
punctata. Although C. phleas has occurred abundantly in certain 
restricted areas in various localities during the past month or six 
weeks, it has been exceedingly scarce in 8.E. Essex in places where 
it is usually abundant. The scarcity is due to insufficient food 
supply for the larvae, owing to the dried-up state of all low-growing 
herbage, including dock and sorrel, through the continued drought. 
In this part of Essex no rain sufficient to moisten the ground fell 
between April 17th and September 11th, resulting in great destruction 
of insect life—F. W. Fronawxk; October, 1921. 
PYRAMEIS ATALANTA AND P. caRDUI IN LANCASHIRE.—P. atalanta 
has been extremely abundant in the Witherslack district this season, 
and also around Preston. Some 150 butterflies which I bred from 
larve collected in these two districts produced a few specimens of 
ab. fracta and other minor vars., the colour of their bands varying 
from dull orange in the case of one specimen to deep carmine. One 
specimen had the marginal band on the hind wings shading off from 
the normal colour to yellow on the margins of the wings. The 
butterflies were plentiful here on the flowers of Michaelmas daisies, 
and I took a specimen of the ab. klemensiewiezt, Schille, on 
September 10th quite near home. On September 17th and 18th, at 
Witherslack, I found atalanta swarming on some patches of Scabious, 
there often being seven or eight on the flowers within the space of a 
square yard. A careful search for varieties resulted in only one of any 
