210 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



five spots on each fore wing, and apparently newly emerged. She 

 deposited a few ova, but I fear that these are infertile. — Hugh F. 

 Stoneham ; Kinsale, co. Cork, May 24th, 1912. 



Collecting in Westmorland, 1911. — June 12th was a fine, 

 bright day, and Lyccena icarus (male) was out in swarms. The dis- 

 parity in size between examples of the same brood from the 

 same locality is astonishing. Our largest males, when set, measure 

 exactly If in. from tip to tip — the smallest (both sexes) exactly 

 1 in. Some females are almost as "blue" as the males (except 

 of course the extreme margins of the wings), but in their case the 

 blue has very often a pronounced lilac tinge. Occasional speci- 

 mens (female) have a distinct bluish-w4iite wedge-shaped mark on 

 the upper side of the disc of the hind wing, and examples with 

 whitish patches near the apex of the fore wing are somewhat 

 commoner. The same day I found males of Augiades sylvanus 

 plentiful and in beautiful order. Several males and one female 

 of Diacrisia sanio were netted. A dozen ova from the latter 

 hatched very quickly, and the young larvas fed so vigorously that 

 I had hopes of rearing the second brood, but in this I was dis- 

 appointed. After reaching a certain stage their appetite failed, and 

 they are now, after trying unsuccessfully to hybernate, all dead. 

 Mr. Holmes from a similar number of ova obtained from a female 

 taken a month later had one larva go through, and that produced a 

 fine male on x\ugust 29th. One wonders as to the cause of such 

 erratic behaviour, for it would be hard to imagine a season theore- 

 tically more suited to the production of a second brood of this 

 species. June 13th saw a new batch of G. typJion emerging, and 

 I was fortunate in netting a fair series. The day was windy, and 

 every individual had to be " kicked up." After battling with the 

 breeze for a moment or two, they would be swept away for fifty 

 yards before they could alight, and then could be marked down and 

 generally captured. A number of perfect female A. sylvanus and one 

 fresh Hyria muricata were taken on the following day. I noticed 

 some L. icarus resting on grass-heads at 6 p.m., and as they were 

 still in the same position at 9.30 p.m., assumed that they had at that 

 hour begun to take up their positions for the night. Quite a number 

 of C. 'pamphilus were observed at the same time, resting upon the 

 yellow centre of the ox-eye daisies. 



June 16th, a dull day with a strong wind, found me again on the 

 " moss." G. typhon would not rise at all. A storm was threatening, 

 and they seemed to know it. I have noticed that in bad weather 

 they creep low down amongst the grasses, after the manner of 

 Erebia cassioi^e. On some high-lying marshy ground (1000 ft.) 

 freshly emerged males of A. selene were found fully three weeks 

 later than on the lowland limestone, although here we noticed 

 projecting from a sallow trunk two freshly vacated pupal cases of 

 T. crahroniformis, a species we are accustomed to take in early July ! 

 The vagaries of the season have been bewildering. About this date I 

 had the mortification of losing a fine brood of Lithomoia solidaginis 

 through diarrhosa, caused, I believe, by the birch carelessly supplied 

 them being saturated with honeydew. Honeydew was greatly in 

 evidence during the summer months, and consequently " sugar," so 



