NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 17 



also at Cbatteuden, Cuxton, Farnborough (Kent) and Westcombe 

 Park (Entom. xxi. p. 187) ; at Sheffield (Entom. xxi. p. 212) ; and at 

 Sunnyside, Groombridge, Sussex (Entom. xxi. p. 233). The season 

 was a notoriously wet and dull one, and the temperature low, on the 

 whole — anything but favourable for insect immigration ; yet it was 

 not only a cardui and gamma year, but a galii year as well (Entom. 

 xxi. p. 256). 



Curiously enough, the season for 1888 was the only one in which 

 I ever remember seeing larv£e and pupje of P. gamma. On rough 

 hilly wastes I found larvfe (many of them) feeding on burdock, and 

 the pupae spun up, chiefly on thistles, in July and August. — J. Arkle ; 

 Dec. 3rd, 1903. 



Melit^a didyma ab. — Since writing my note to an illustration of 

 an aberrant M. didyma (Entom. xxxvi. 153) I have come across, in the 

 ' Bulletin de la Societe Entomologique de France,' for 1900, a plate of 

 aberrations of the same species, one of which is almost identical with 

 that figured by me. These, with a note furnished by M. Charles 

 Oberthiir, are exceptionally interesting, inasmuch as he takes the view 

 that such " aberrations are always analogous according to the pre- 

 vailing scheme of each species, and even of each genus." " The 

 aberrations," he continues, " are not isolated examples, occurring 

 once not to re-occur in like form ; they are rather regular variations 

 appearing in certain places where the necessary conditions exist for 

 their development. What these conditions may be appears to be little 

 known. Heat, cold, light, and electricity seem, however, to be the 

 principal causes of aberration in Lepidoptera." And he goes on to 

 cite the curious case of a lilac-winged jiberration of Lycana hellargus, 

 taken after a thunderstorm in some numbers, where none of that 

 species differing from the normal colour form had been observed before 

 or after the electrical disturbances of the atmosphere. Incidentally 

 also to the occurrence of M. didyma at Bourg-des-Compts in the 

 neighbourhood of Eennes, M. Oberthiir says that this without doubt 

 is the furthest western locality for the species in France, and there- 

 fore Europe. — H. Rowland-Bkown ; Oxhey Grove, Harrow Weald, 

 Nov. 25th. 



Geometra vernaria. — My experience with regard to the emergence 

 of this species was very similar to that of Mr. Clarke (Entom. xxxvi. 

 291). The first insects to emerge were all males, the females remain- 

 ing till last. There was, however, some overlapping, one or two of the 

 latest males emerging about the same time as the first of the females. 

 G. M. Russell ; Portchester, Nov. 12th, 1903. 



Contribution to the National Collection of British Lepidoptera. 

 — Twelve specimens of Eupithecia consigyiata, by Mrs. Hutchinson, of 

 Leominster, Herefordshire. Ten of the specimens were reared last 

 April, and are the direct descendants of a female example captured in 

 April, 1874. 



ENTOM. — JANUARY, 1904. 



