NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 207 



laid in the autumn, they must have been deposited in the ground 

 about the roots of the plant, so that in the spring the newly hatched 

 larva3 could find the springing shoots of the monkshood ; or else, being 

 laid on the plants, the eggs hatch in the autumn, and the young larvJB 

 crawl down and hybernate in the crevices of the tubers. This, I 

 admit, was my own theory, but it seems to be ruled out of court by 

 Mr. Claxton's experiments. There yet remains the possibility that 

 the moth itself hybernates, and deposits its eggs on the young shoots 

 as soon as they appear. This theory seems perhaps the least incom- 

 patible with both Mr. Claxton's experience and my own, though I 

 have no positive evidence that the moth does hybernate. — K. G. 

 Blaie ; 23, West Hill, Highgate. 



Plusia moneta. — I am pleased to be able to record P. moneta for 

 this district. I found one larva and six pupse the first w^eek in June, 

 three of which have already emerged. Five were on Delpliinium and 

 two on monkshood. — Eobt. S. Smith, Jun. ; The Laurels, Downham 

 Market, Norfolk. 



COLIAS EDUSA IN BuCKS, AND SOME EaRLY EMERGENCES. — On 



May 30th I was cycling from Great Missenden in the Wendover 

 direction, when I saw a fine female Golias eclusa by the roadside, 

 evidently prospecting for a lucerne field, of which there are usually 

 plenty in this neighbourhood. My last record for the country here- 

 abouts is August 13th, 1904, north-west of Wendover. With the 

 exception of the "whites," most of the common spring butterflies 

 have put in a very early appearance this year. On April 20th Euchloe 

 cardamines (males) were flying on the Chilterns near Kimble, and on 

 the 21st at Pinner. Pararge egeria var. egerides was going over in 

 the Bucks beech-woods on May 11th. On May 2nd Coenonymplia 

 ]}ampliilus was out here ; Ghrysophanus phlcsas on the 9th. Callo- 

 l^hrys rubi swarmed on the Chilterns on April 20th — both sexes, and 

 in the same locality Gelastrina argiolus. The latter butterfly has 

 been commoner than I ever remember it in our garden, the flight 

 lasting from April 19th to June 1st, when one or two worn females 

 still haunted the hollies. On May 30th Aricia medon (astrarche) was 

 well out on the Chilterns, with occasional Pararge megc&ra and 

 Augiades sylvanus. Thanaos tages also was very common from May 

 11th onwards, Hesperia malvcB less so. The first Polyommatus icarus 

 was out here on May 23rd (female, 25th), and individual males of 

 Cupido minimus in Bucks on May 27th. — H. Eowland-Brown ; 

 Harrow Weald, June 8th, 1912. 



Metrioptera (Platycleis) roeselii in Essex. — On reading Mr. 

 Campion's article in the 'Entomologist' for April {antea, pp. 117-18) 

 it at once struck me that the description of this insect agreed very 

 well with some examples I have taken on the North Essex coast 

 during the past few years, and had labelled P. hracliyptera. On com- 

 paring the specimens with the description in Mr. Burr's ' British 

 Orthoptera,' the entirely pale margins of the pronotum seemed con- 

 clusive that it was really P. roeselii, and on my sending a specimen 

 to Mr. W. J. Lucas, he confirmed the identification. The species 

 seems to have been first met with in 1903, when a single male was 

 taken, and one or more examples have occurred in most years since, 



