212 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



one locality in the last named county that the gynandro occurred, and 

 where the male did not, as usual, predominate. 



With reference to Mr. Turner's note on the drinking habit of Auriades 

 coridon I have noticed during every season that the males are attracted 

 by horse, sheep, dog, and human excrement when it is fresh, and also 

 where a cart has passed through manure, leaving a rut partly filled 

 with water. The males only are attracted, and I have never noticed a 

 female among the crowd, neither have I noticed the habit among other 

 species of " blues." — S. G. Castle Russell. 



Copulation of Agriades coridon, Polyommatus icarus and Agriades 

 THETIS. — On September 2nd, at Gomshall, I took a male Agriades thetis 

 in cop. with a female A. coridon, and a male Polyommatus icarus in cop. 

 with a female A. coridon. This illicit copulation may account for the 

 colour variation of some of the '-blues." An attempt to obtain ova from 

 the pairings unfortunately failed owing to the accidental escape of the 

 insects by means of an unnoticed hole in the leno. It is such an un- 

 usual occurrence to find batterflies of different species copulating that 

 I think records should always be made when such is noted. I have on 

 two occasions found Kpinephele jurtina (janira) and Aphantopus 

 hyper ant us paired, the male in each case being K. jurtina. The season 

 generally has been extraordinarily good as regards batterflies, principally 

 I think because of the fine weather. From the middle of May to the 

 28th July I experienced only one wet day, every excursion being 

 blessed with ample sunshine. After the end of July, the less said 

 about the weather the better, but I noticed that the change occurred 

 at the time of the great offensive on the West front. — S. G. Castle 

 Russell, Woking. September 18th. 



The Larv.e of Eupitheciids, etc, — A long walk in the district 

 between Bookbam and Ranmore Common, over ground familiar when 

 actively collecting years ago, has reminded me that now is the time to 

 gather seed heads of various plants for the seed-feeding larvfe. Coming 

 across a larger number of stems of the " nettle-leaved bell-flower," 

 Campanula trachelinui, than I have met with for many years, induced 

 me to gather a quantity of the seed-vessels, which on examination 

 produced the larvae of Kupithecia campanulata. This particular locality 

 is another of those paths in Surrey to which I have referred before, as 

 being allowed by the local authorities, if there be any, to get into 

 disuse, so that probably it will be absorbed by the adjoining land- 

 owners without a protest, and another " bye-path " in the pleasant 

 Surrey uplands lost to the nature-lover for ever. — H.J.T. 



Things that fly. — After the alarming experiences of last night, 

 September 24th, when the air and sky seemed to be full of things pro- 

 pelled or self-propelled, it has been a bit of a relief to the tired brain 

 to contemplate the visitors to my Sednm bed, which annually, at this 

 season of the year, attracts most of the beauty in the insect world 

 which has not yet gone to sleep. To-day, a lovely sunlit day, warm 

 and calm, save for the pulsating detonations of distant guns, I find my 

 flower-bed is very fully populated. Pyraweis atalanta is the most 

 numerous, truly by the dozen, and, except when bird, or cat, or boy 

 has tampered, in prime condition. Aylais urticae comes in a good 

 second, Vanessa io but a single specimen, and P. cardui one. It is five 

 years since I have recorded this last species, and the probabilities are 

 that I have not seen it in the intervening neriod. Pieris brassicae, P. 



