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' BURNETS ' OF FILEY, YORKS. 



H. DOUGLAS SMART, M.C., M.D., F.E.S. 



On June 25th and 26th last I spent a week-end at Filey, not 

 intending to collect insects, but, nevertheless, hoping to renew 

 my series of Zygaena lonicerae. 



On the sea front there are some ' gardens ' where one may 

 collect ' burnets ' by paying the admission fee of one penny, 

 and I can recommend the expenditure of that sum to any 

 lepidopterist who finds himself in Filey at the end of June. 

 There is no apparent reason why the man in the street should 

 wish to enter the enclosure. As a matter of fact he seldom 

 does, and one may collect in comfort, separated from the 

 general public by an iron railing. 



There were two species just emerging from the cocoons, 

 Z. filipendulae and Z. lonicerae, the former being the more 

 numerous to the extent of four or five to one. Filipendulae 

 was a little in advance of the other, presenting more wasted 

 specimens, but this did not account for more than a trifling 

 preponderance, as its more highly glazed cocoon with the 

 ends of different tints was also the more numerous. Many 

 cocoons of both species had been neatly opened by an oval 

 hole below the bulge on the free margin,, and the pupa ab- 

 stracted. 



An interesting phenomenon, new to me, was the congre- 

 gation of several males on a grass-head, on the stem of which 

 was an intact cocoon. There were several instances of this, 

 and in one case where the males were of both species the 

 cocoon produced a filipendulae $ next morning. 



Wing vibrations cannot supply the attractive stimulus in 

 this case, although a cage full of burnet cocoons gives out 

 astonishingly loud clickings in the morning sunshine when 

 the moths are coming out. 



A long search for aberrations was not too successful. The 

 best finds in this respect were two thinly scaled filipendulae 

 with the complexion of Z. exulans or meliloti. There were, 

 too, a iev^ filipendulae showing confluence, some of the middle 

 pair of spots, some of the distal pair. Blurring of the spots 

 by invasion of the ground colour by red scales was also noted. 



Z. lonicerae showed no variation worthy of mention. 



The most interesting insects taken were about a dozen 

 that I feel sure are hybrids. They all have the sixth spot 

 very greatly reduced and traversed by a dark nervure, as in 

 Z. hippocrepidis Stephens. They all have the black border 

 of the hind wing intermediate in width between those of the 

 supposed parents. In this they differ from Irish specimens of 



1921 Nov. 1 



