NOTES ON COLLECTING. 191 
filipendulae, and I have observed the same thing with regard to these 
two species in South Hants (Alverstoke and Portsmouth districts). 
In the rough and open part of a wood in which I had previously 
noted a strong colony of Z. trifolii, I took on June 29tn, 1919, some 
ab. orobi. In the present year I first observed Z. trifolii there on June 
18th, and on June 19th I took (but in one particular spot only) a good 
series of ab. minoides and one ab. glycerhizae. In this locality minoides 
appears to be the most frequent of the aberrations and I saw many 
other specimens of this variety at the same time. 
I have not noted 7. filipendulae at the same spot, though no doubt 
it occurs there; but on the chalk hills rather nearer to Portsmouth 
- where it swarms in thousands, the large majority are, so far as I have 
been able to observe, to type, the only varieties [ have met with being 
occasional specimens having the two outer spots joined, or the middle 
pair joined.—R. Barnarp CruicxsHank, Alverstoke, Hants. 
Potyommatus icarus, vaRteTY.—I took in this neighbourhood on May 
29th this year a perfect specimen of the variety figured in South’g 
Butterflies, plate 119, fig. 5, the whole underside except the outer 
margins being entirely free from spots, and exactly as figured in 
South’s book ; the latter does not however mention any name for this 
variety, and I should be glad to learn from any of your correspondents 
what this is.—Ip. [This form is usually identified with ab. persica, 
Bienert, but in Tutt’s Brit. Lep. (iv. 156) it is separated tentatively as 
ab. obsoleta, Clarke (G.W.).| 
Potyeonra c-aLBuM IN NorrincHamsuire.——Yesterday, September 
19th, I took a specimen of P. c-albuwm in my garden here. This is 
the first specimen I have ever seen in the Midlands, though I see it ig 
recorded from the Mansfield district.—Doucnas H. Parson (F'.E.S.), 
Chilwell, Notts. : 
Norz on Mewanareia arce,—In Hint. Rec., vol. xxxi., p. 110, Dr. 
Roger Verity states that contrary to the general rule in butterflies that 
the males greatly outnumber the females the opposite is the case in 
Melanaryia arye. He proceeds to base, in part, on this statement 
another to the effect that the ‘‘ increase in the relative number of the 
females is often proportioned to the localisation and to the scarcity of 
the species,” and he conjectures, therefore, that we have here an 
example of effort to conserve and enhance generative capacity in the 
case of a species which-is on the way, to extinction. I do not know 
upon whose observations the statement about Melanargia arye is based, 
but it is certainly a most amazing statement and in my experience 
very wide of the facts. I have observed Melanargia arye in the 
greatest abundance for several years in succession in its haunts near 
Brindisi; and, if I may judge from what has been published, my 
acquaintance with the species in life is vastly greater than that of any 
other European lepidopterist, and I can affirm most positively that so 
far as the Brindisi district is concerned the statement is not true. On 
the contrary in that area the relative proportion of the sexes is 
approximately the same as in the case of other Melanargias, the males 
outnumbering the females in the proportion of at least 5 to 1! My 
observations are based on times when Melanaryia arye had reached the 
