NOTES ON LY(LENA argiades. 199 



plant nettle not infrequently. The broods numbered from thirty 

 to a hundred specimens each ; the majority at the latter part of 

 our stay were full-grown, but others were still very small. Those 

 brought home pupated and emerged as var. prorsa, with a few 

 var. porima, and intermediates, between July 20th and the end 

 of the month ; some, . however, are remaining over, and will, I 

 suppose, emerge next spring as the typical form. 



From the examples bred I selected a dozen pairs, which I 

 confined in a large gauze cage in the garden, introducing the 

 food-plant and some flowers for them to feed upon. I observed 

 two pairings, and eventually obtained seven batches of ova. 

 The method of ova- depositing of this species is very unusual and 

 interesting. The female affixes herself firmly to the leaf of a 

 nettle — apparently without much preference as to which surface, 

 for, of the seven batches of ova obtained, four were on the under 

 side, and three on the upper side of the leaf; she then deposits 

 an ova on the leaf. The ova are barrel- shaped and ribbed longi- 

 tudinally ; one end of the barrel is attached to the leaf. She 

 next deposits another ova on the other barrel-shaped end of the 

 first ova, and on this second ova another one, until there is a 

 row of ova of from nine to twenty projecting from the leaf, 

 approximately, at right angles from its surface. She then forms 

 other rows, until the number of rows is from five to ten, and the 

 number of ova in each batch from forty to one hundred. I can- 

 not say whether the female deposits all her ova on one leaf, or 

 if, after she has deposited one batch, she goes to a second or 

 third leaf, but I am inclined to think the former is the case. 

 The ova, when deposited, are bright green, but after a few days 

 they turn dull yellow-green, and then a day or so before emer- 

 gence black. The length of each ova is about half a millimetre, 

 and thus the rows of ova vary from five to ten millimetres in 

 length. 



A few examples of the imago of the spring and typical form 

 were flying in the woods at Laon in not bad condition, con- 

 sidering that they must have been on the wing some six or 

 eight weeks. 



NOTES ON LYG.ENA ARGIADES, Pall = AMYNTAS, 



HiJBN. 



By The Hon. N. Charles Kothschild, M.A., F.L.S. 



M. Charles Oberthur published rather more than twelve 

 months ago an interesting note on the above-mentioned insect,* 

 which we translate in its entirety. The note reads as follows : — 



* ' La Feuillee des Jeunes Naturalistes,' Quatrieme Serie, No. 429, p. 149, 

 ler Juillet, 1906. 



