BUTTERFLIES OF HAZELEIGH. 297 



Butterflies at Hazeleigh. 



, By Bev. G. H. KAYNOR, M.A. 



I cannot say that 1906 has been a particularly good year for 

 lepidoptera, and, even among species that have been really abundant, 

 such as Af/lais urticae, striking aberrations have been conspicuously 

 absent. As a class, the Diurni have hardly been so plentiful as 

 the fine summer would have led one to expect. A very fine ? 

 Papilio machaan, appeared in my garden on June 7th, and was netted 

 as it settled on a gravel path. Probably, it was descended from some 

 specimens turned out last year by a neighbour living some four miles 

 away. Euchlo'e cardamines, after being abnormally scarce in 1905, 

 turned up this year in moderate numbers only. For many years past 

 I have bred this species largely, and caught almost every specimen 

 seen, in the vain hope of obtaining a J dashed with orange, such as I 

 captured near Cambridge in the early seventies. The larvfe of this 

 species have, for the last two years, been badly infested with the grub 

 of a Dipteron (BlepJiaridia or E.vorista vulgaris, I imagine); hence, no 

 doubt, the scarcity of the imago. The three common species of Pieris 

 have been fairly abundant, but not noticeably so. Some P. rapae larvte 

 I found late in August, on mignonette, yielded three imagines of the 

 third brood, viz., a <? on September 9th, and a <y and 5 on the 22nd ; 

 whilst on the 23rd I found a freshly -emerged ? sitting on a knapweed 

 flower, and another flying on the 25th. A ? Gonepterijx rhamni, 

 caught on May 12th, I sleeved out on branches of various 

 Rhamnus frangula bushes growing in my garden, with the result that 

 she laid 99 eggs. Generally, one, two, three or four were deposited on 

 a leaf, but exceptionally, eleven, twelve, and fifteen. They were laid, 

 generally, on the underside, occasionally on the upperside, and rarely 

 on both sides of the leaf — still more rarely on the plant stem or on the 

 muslin bag. The earliest of these eggs hatched on June 3rd, but the 

 larvae all succumbed to attacking parasites. The first new butterfly I 

 observed of this species was a 5 , flying among lucerne, on the last day 

 of July. Pyrameis cardui first turned up on June 6th, and from then 

 till July 31st, very wasted specimens (doubtless immigrants) were 

 generally to be found settled on the gravel paths in my garden. I did 

 not notice a new specimen till August 21st, and the last specimen I 

 saw this year (on September 17th) was excessively battered. Pyrameis 

 atalanta has been scarce, both in the larval and imaginal states, but 

 larvffi of Vanessa io and Aglais urticae have been unusually abundant. I 

 bred many hundreds of each without obtaining any notable aberration. 

 Indeed, Vanessa io (from Essex and Monmouthshire) did not vary at all, 

 not a single ab. cyanosticta being reared. On May 13th, I noticed an 

 Aglais ^irticae settled on a nettle, and close to her I discovered a batch 

 of from forty to fifty eggs laid on a small top leaf of the nettle, which 

 they closely resemble in colour; they hatched on June 1st, only 

 changing colour a day or two previously. About two-thirds of the 

 larvae pupated on July 8th, and the rest a day or two afterwards. The 

 imagines began to appear on July 22nd, and among them was the 

 largest specimen, I think, I have ever seen, the expanse of its wings 

 being 2^ inches, and the colouring very rich. Among the constantly 

 recurring forms of this species is one with a salmon ground colour, which 

 seems to me worthy of a varietal name ; it may, therefore, be called 

 December 15th, 1906. 



