228 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Buff-coloured Amphidasys betularia. — As the question of the 

 buff variety of A. betularia has again cropped up, I may say that 

 many years ago I experimented on dead specimens of the ordinary 

 colour, and found that exposure to the vapour of chlorine altered 

 them to this buff colour. At the same time I was unable to alter the 

 iovms doubleday aria in a similar way to the Lancashire buff varieties. — 

 Philip B, Mason; Burton-on-Treut, July 3rd, 1901. 



[As previously stated {ante, p. 180), I have two buff examples of 

 A. betularia, and notice that the antennae still remain of the normal 

 coloration — i. e. entirely black in the male, and black ringed with 

 whitish in the female. It would be interesting to know if the antennae 

 of other buff specimens of this species are black or buff. — R.S.] 



Lyc^na corydon protected by Resemblance. — On July 17th last, 

 near Newland's Corner, on the North Downs, a male specimen of 

 L. corydon was noticed in the evening having taken up a position of 

 rest on the flower-head of a small plantain (probably Plantar/o media). 

 The markings of the uuder-surface of the wings caused the insect to 

 be remarkably well protected by resemblance in the position it had 

 assumed. — W. J. Lucas ; Kingston-on-Thames. 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



Entomological Notes for June, 1901. — I have succeeded in rearing 

 the larvae of Nemeubius lucina, which, as I mentioned last month, 

 emerged from ova on June 4th. At the present time they are nearly 

 full grown, and I am wondering whether the imagines will appear this 

 year. The first of my Vanessa pohjchloros larvae fixed itself up to the 

 muslin cover of the cylinder on June 10th, and the imago appeared 

 on June 29th — i. e. forty-seven days from the hatchiug of the larva 

 from the ovum. The rest of them came out on June 30th, but unfor- 

 tunately several specimens are rather below the normal size ; some, 

 however, are very fine. 1 was fortunate enough to see both the 

 process of pupating and that of the exit of the imago from the pupa- 

 case. It was most amusing to see the pupa get rid of its old larval- 

 skin, by butting at it till it fell down. Two of the larvae, after having 

 hitched up successfully, were unable to burst the skin, and consequently 

 shrivelled up and died. They were apparently just as healthy as the 

 rest, in fact I could detect no difl'erence in them ; but, though they 

 struggled hard and loug, they finally succumbed. The imago took 

 exactly twelve minutes to arrive at its full size with expanded wings ; 

 and all the time the process was going on it kept curling and uncurling 

 its proboscis, which, as far as I could see, was in two parts all the 

 time, not joining together until the growth of the wings was complete. 

 I have been rearing a number of larvae of Ennomos fuscantaria, and 

 their emergence from the ova was spread over three weeks ; only on 

 two occasions did more than one larva come out on the same day. 

 The first one pupated on June 21st, and another is about to do so 

 to-day (July 4th), but several of the larvs are still quite small. On 

 June 28th I got a number of Lyccena minima {alsus) from a disused 



