126 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



yellow varieties, but I am not aware that any other single locality 

 has produced a number. Besides the insect taken in 1898, re- 

 ferred to above, two of the specimens were taken in 1899, and 

 no less than six in 1900. In addition to these, a yellow male 

 was taken in 1897, and another fine j'ellow male was seen on 

 August 12th, 1903. In connection with the larger number taken 

 in 1900, it may be mentioned that E. titlwnus was exceptionally 

 abundant in that year in the South Hampshire locality where 

 the varieties were obtained ; and this abundance probably ex- 

 tended to other districts, for the large numbers in which the 

 species appeared at Christchurch and the New Forest were the 

 subject of a note by Mr. W. J. Lucas in the * Entomologist ' 

 (xxxiii. p. 350). 



With the exception of two white females (one of which is 

 figured, fig. 1), all the specimens are males. Although two or 

 three of the yellow specimens are much alike as regards ground 

 colour, the whole series shows a gradation in colour from a 

 specimen which has partial normal colouring, through inter- 

 mediate chrome-yellow specimens, to the three white ones. The 

 beautiful specimen shown in fig. 2 difi'ers from the normal 

 not only in having a clear yellow ground colour, but also in 

 possessing additional spots on all the wings, the upper spot on 

 the hind wings being white-centred. 



The whole of the varieties were taken at spots within a mile 

 of each other, and about a mile or so from the sea. Three of 

 the specimens were taken, in different years, at spots only a few 

 yards apart, but any conjecture as regards the transmission of 

 the variant character from parent to offspring is, of course, 

 useless until a direct appeal is made to experiment. All the 

 specimens were taken on chalk hills, and it is interesting, and 

 perhaps suggestive, to note that the white male, fig. 3, was most 

 difficult to capture on account of its matching so closely the 

 lights and shades of the chalky soil of the field in which it was 

 taken. Although only a feeble flier, some half-dozen unsuccess- 

 ful attempts at capture were made, and at each attempt the 

 insect at once left the grass-bordered hedgerow and made for the 

 cultivated part of the field. Its absolute and sudden disappear- 

 ance as it passed over the edge of the broken-up ground was 

 most astonishing, and one could only wait for its return to 

 the hedge, where in a few moments it was again found some 

 yards off. 



I may mention that the form, called by Tutt (' British 

 Butterflies ') ab. excessa, which possesses one or two additional 

 black spots but has normal colouring, is not uncommon in the 

 South Hampshire locality where I have collected, thus supporting 

 Barrett's statement (' Lepidoptera of the British Islands ') that 

 this variety occurs in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea. 

 It would be interesting to learn in what localities the albino 



