10 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



season of 1910, which will be remembered by me as far the 

 wettest and most disappointing for many years, in a country 

 where sunshine, as a rule, can be relied upon throughout the 

 summer, at all events out of the higher mountain districts. 



Harrow, Weald : Dec. 1910. 



THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELITMA. 

 By Rev. George Wheeler, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Continued from vol. xliii. p. 337.) 



I HAVE notes by Mr. Powell, with comments thereon by Mr. 

 Sloper, on the larva of M. deione from the South of France. 

 They are, however, written from such a different point of view, 

 the comparison being made with M. didyma, and not with M. 

 athalia, of whose earlier stages Mr. Powell, at the time these 

 notes were written (1904), said that he had no distinct recol- 

 lection, that I do not think anything would be gained in the 

 present connection by copying them as they stand. Most of the 

 details given would apply equally well to other species of this 

 group, and there is no point specially remarked upon in which 

 they differ from var. berisalensis. In sending these notes to 

 Mr. Sloper, Mr. Powell enclosed some specimens of the food- 

 plant, observing that the larvae, when he received them from 

 M. Foulquier, had eaten all the flowers of the plants sent with 

 them ; on this Mr. Sloper remarks that the food-plant is the 

 same species of Linaria as that on which the larva of beri- 

 salensis feeds, and that the latter also eat the flowers in pre- 

 ference to the leaves. Mr. Powell's larvae must, from the date 

 (June 13th), have belonged to the second brood, and it may be 

 observed that the first brood larvae, after hybernation, can have 

 no opportunity of indulging this taste, as their food-plant is not 

 in flower during the early spring. 



The larva of britomartis was described by Assmann as fol- 

 lows : — Size of a small cinxia ; head and legs black, the former 

 possessed on the upper surface of small raised spots of a white 

 colour, on which are short black hairs ; the cylindrical body, 

 abdominal and anal legs pearly white, generally finely latticed 

 with violet-grey ; only one stripe on the back and two on the 

 sides are somewhat strongly marked. The clean white warts 

 have black hairs, and stand on fairly large rust-yellow spots, 

 which often coalesce and then form a broken band on each 

 separate segment. On this Riihl remarks (Soc. Ent. v. p. 106) : 

 " According to this description the larva is strongly separated 

 from all Melitcea larvae known to me, and Assmann would be 

 right in making it a separate species." One cannot read this 



