13 



visited even suburban gardens in numbers. I noticed in Surbiton that 

 they were particularly attracted to single varieties of China-asters. 

 And although again and again disturbed never left the blooms 

 except for a minute or two. It is remarkable that with the great 

 increase in the numbers of the species, there has been a great 

 amount of variation, and not only in the direction of the dark form 

 elens, usually associated with heat, but of albino forms known as 

 alba and schinidtti. Suffused forms have been numerous, and have 

 been recorded from Little Missenden, Colchester, Bexley, and 

 Helston, and almost anywhere where numbers of specimens were 

 examined. 



Mr. H. B. Williams, writing in the " Entomologist's Record," 

 vol. xxiii., p. 275 says : " A very noticeable feature of this year's 

 R. phlaas has been the large number of suffused forms, due, no 

 doubt, to the heat. Quite a large proportion of my captures have 

 been of the form described by Tutt as ab. initia, and one or two 

 distinctly ab. suff'nsa." The var. schiiiidtii has been taken at 

 Windermere, St. Anne's-on-Sea, and Colchester, while the commoner 

 forms with one or more wings bleached, the forms with the band 

 on the hindwings absent or represented by streaks, and the ab. 

 ccrndeopunctata, or blue marked hindwing form, have all been met 

 with not infrequently by those who have taken the species 

 in any numbers. It is remarkable that in this species, unlike the 

 commoner blues, icarus, thetis, or coridon, well-marked examples of 

 specimens with the spots joined or elongated appear to be exceed- 

 ingly rare, but small aberrations with slightly wedge-shaped spots 

 have been not infrequent. It is not uncommon for this species to 

 have three broods in one year, but it is not often observed to be so 

 extremely numerous as in the autumn of 1911. 



It is interesting to compare the records of this species in the year 

 1893, which was comparable to 1911, for the long duration of high 

 temperature and abundant sunshine. Tutt, in " British Lepidop- 

 tera," records the species from several localities as occurring in 

 October, while a fresh specimen was seen at Micheldean on Novem- 

 ber 1st (Scaranke), and Fowler found that a specially late brood did 

 not emerge till November 12th, at Ringwood. Several specimens, 

 I believe, were seen this year as late as November, while in mid- 

 October it was still abundant. 



Pieris rapce and Pieris napi were both triple-brooded, and are 

 recorded as such by several writers in the October number of the 

 " Entomologist," as well as by Mr. Grosvenor in the November 

 number of the " Entomologist's Record." 



