119 



the maculafcions not defined — the abdomen immaculate." If we 

 have any hippocrepidis in Britain it must be this one mentioned by 

 Stephens as having been first found here in June, 1810, and which 

 he does not claim to be new to science, but erroneously refers it to 

 Jiippociepiilis, Ochsenheimer. Mr. Adkin said that during the past 

 few years he had seen a considerable number of specimens which 

 were regarded by their owners as Idppocrepidis, some simply because 

 they had emerged in June, and others because they showed the 

 sixth spot small in size and intersected by the coloured nervure, or 

 had these features in conjunction with a comparatively broad and 

 undulating margin to the hindwings; but none of these appeared 

 to show the immaculate red underside of the forewings mentioned 

 by Stephens. A theory had also been put forward that Stephens' 

 hippiirrt'pidis was found only when A. trifolii and A. tHipeudidcs flew 

 together, and that it was a hybrid between those two species, but 

 he was not aware of any direct evidence to support such a theory. 

 In illustration of his remarks he exhibited series of A. rilijiendHhe, 

 including (a) a specimen taken on June 26th, at Northwood, in 

 which the sixth spot was exceedingly small and intersected by a 

 coloured nervure, and the margins of the hindwings were broad and 

 distinctly undulated internally, together with a typical A. nli- 

 pcndidir taken on the same day within a few yards of it. In this 

 locality A. trifolii vf&s known to occur, but there was no reason for 

 supposing that the first-named specimen was anything more than a 

 form of A. nlipendiihe. (b) Specimens similar to the first-named 

 together with typical A. tilipendula, all reared on July 29th from 

 pupffi collected near Westerham, in a locality where, so far as was 

 known A. trifolii did not occur, and indeed a most unlikely spot for 

 that species, (c) A series of A. fHipenduUc reared on June 13th- 

 16th, which bore none of the features described by Stephens as 

 differentiating A. liippocrepidis. He further said that he could not 

 help thinking that Stephens having found a form of A. filipendula;, 

 at a somewhat early date for the species, that was new to him, and 

 being cognisant of Ochsenheimer's description, and possibly also of 

 Herrich-Schaft'er's figures, he had seen a little more in the immacu- 

 late red colouring of the underside of the forewings of his speci- 

 mens than was really there ; but whether that was so or not he 

 considered we were quite wrong in applying the name hippocrepidis 

 to any of the specimens that had recently been passing under that 

 name. 



Mr. P. A. Buxton communicated the following notes : — 



