NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 295 
imagines emerged from September 24th to October 5th inclusive, but 
-one remained as a pupa throughout the winter and produced a fine 
male specimen on April 26th, 1904.—F. W. Fronawxk ; November, 
1921. 
WHAT Is ZYGHNA AB. HIPPOCREPIDIS ?—Can any reader inform 
me what is considered the true status of the aberration called 
Zygena ab. hippocrepidis. My experience this season leaves me 
absolutely at sea. South, in his ‘ Moths of the British Isles,’ is of 
opinion that it is a hybrid between Z. filipendule and trifoliz. Now 
in this area I came across a large colony flying during the last week 
-of May through June. I found all were typical hippocrepidis with 
wider marginal borders to hind wings, the sixth spot divided by 
nervule. I secured a long series and examined some two hundred 
others, and did not in a single instance find any with five spots only, 
though two had the sixth spot very small. The point is as the 
season advanced I found that many were absolutely type filipendule, 
exactly similar to others taken miles away in August. Again, among 
my filipendule taken over a series of years on our chalk down I find 
-a few ab. hippocrepidis. Now if a hybrid, one would expect to find a 
-colony, large or small, of both jilipendule and trifolii near, but the 
nearest colony of filipendule is at least five miles away and no 
-trifolii near at all. I have never seen a specimen of ¢rifolit taken 
within, say, ten miles. How can we account for cross-pairing? I 
have in the past often seen what I considered Z. filipendul@ on the 
same ground but did not recognise it as ab. hippocrepidis, but this 
year, seeing it in such numbers, and at so early a date as the end of 
May, I examined them carefully and compared with type-specimens 
in my cabinet. It seems to me to be an aberration; but type is 
never found on the ground in August, and how account for the 
preponderance of the ab. in May and June. Again, if a hybrid, some 
few at least would take after the five-spotted parent. I would be 
very grateful if any reader having more experience than mine would 
write and give me information on this point, either through the 
‘Entomologist’ or otherwise.—R. H. Rarrray (Colonel) ; 68, Dry 
Hill Park Road, Tonbridge, Kent. 
BUTTERFLIES ON THE SoutTH SALispuRY Downs, 1921.—The 
‘following notes on Rhopalocera, chiefly collected near the village of 
Damerham in South Wiltshire, may be of interest. Gonepteryx 
rhamni, Vanessaio and Aglais urtice were first seen on March 25th. 
Pieris rape first made an appearance on April 4th, and my first record 
for Huchloé cardamines was April 20th. During the hot summer all 
three species of Pieris were unusually abundant, and several diminu- 
tive specimens of P. rape were taken. Argynnis aglaia is usually 
fairly common, but this season only a single specimen was taken. I 
‘saw nothing of Argynnis cydippe, which was very plentiful here in 
1919. Prior to 1919 I had not seen Dryas paphia on the downs, but 
this year it was fairly common everywhere. No specimens of var. 
~valesina were seen. Hugonia polychloros is never common here, but 
I took a single specimen at Cripplestyle in July. Pyramets cardui 
“was more in evidence than usual, but P. atalanta was not seen at all. 
Vanessa io was much commoner than Aglais urtice: usually the 
