FOOD-PLA.NT OF LYC^NA (lATIORINA) ORBITULUS. 221 



a male approaching, flying slowly towards you over the long grass, 

 do not be in a hurry to effect a capture, but watch, and as 

 it passes you will see the sparkling gem-like, red gold, upper 

 side, mingle with the delicate blue-grey under side, and form a 

 natural kaleidoscope, a dream of colour well-nigh incomparable. 

 Certain other species of European " coppers " are brilliant and 

 most beautiful, but there is something indescribable about C. dis- 

 2Mr that, to my mind, places it in a class by itself for beauty. 



The female is, of course, not so brilliant an object. She is 

 generally to be found in some corner away from the usual haunts 

 of the male, presumably after impregnation : one frequently 

 observes her at rest during the morning, or she may be disturbed 

 out of the herbage. During the afternoon she is usually seen flying 

 slowly and steadily over the grass in search of the food-plant. 



One gets the impression that C. var. ratilus is only here for 

 a time, for the whole of the herbage is cut for forage every 

 season when the young larvae of the first brood are feeding, and 

 it is difficult to understand how any large proportion can reach 

 maturity. Some of the examples I captured were very small, 

 one expanding only 28 mm., evidently the result of insufficient 

 nutrition. 



The melodious fluting of the golden oriole, and the unmis- 

 takable " Hoo, hoo, hoo," of the hoopoe, two of our rarest and 

 most beautiful birds, now alas, like the large " copper," extinct 

 with us, or visiting us only c isually, added greatly to the interest 

 and charm of a red-letter day in one's entomological life. 



August 19th, 1909. 



THE FOOD-PLANT OP LYC.ENA (LATIORTNA) 

 ORBITULUS. 



By T. a. Chapman, M.D. 



When I made the observations recorded in the 'Entomo- 

 logist ' for last May on this subject, I felt much doubt as to 

 whether Androsace vitaliana was the food-plant of L. orbitiUus. 

 Although it was unquestionably the food-plant at Binn, it might 

 be, after all, only a food-plant, one amongst others. This doubt 

 was based on the fact that my memories of the various places in 

 which I had met with orbitiUus were unaccompanied, as a rule, 

 with any recollection of Androsace vitaliana. This plant is, how- 

 ever, very inconspicuous, except when in flower, and as orbitulus 

 flies after the flowering is over, it seemed quite possible that the 

 A. vitaliana was really the food-plant. 



Memory is not very trustworthy on a negative point like 

 this, so that my doubts were not clear enough to justify me in 

 expressing them when I wrote out the notes referred to. I, 



