184 THE entomologist's record. 



red ground colour, but in which the black pattern is so enormously 

 extended as to make phoebe nearly unrecognisable ; one of my female 

 specimens is identical with Seitz's jigure of female changaica in 

 ** Grosschmett. der Erde," but a little smaller; I propose naming it 

 nigroalternans. 



The race of the Valais is distinguished from nymotypical phoebe by 

 a slight but constant character : a marked increase in size of the 

 central row of black spots across the wings, as compared with the extent 

 of the black pattern generally : race inonilata ; types, collected by 

 Wullschlegel, in my collection. In tnsca and other races the same 

 character appears in single individuals, and in such cases they might 

 be called monilataeformis, as by other characters they naturally differ 

 from the Valais specimens. The opposite variation is not rare in the 

 female of tnsca : here nearly all the black pattern, except the marginal 

 streak and the premarginal lunules, is entirely obliterated or vaguely 

 shadowed (form deleta, mihi ; type : my spec. no. 57). 



Finally, the Sicilian race deserves more attention than it has 

 hitherto received; it is a transition to Ohevthiivs pimica, which he 

 considered as being probably a distinct species, evidently wrongly. 

 Males: 31-37 mm. ; females: 37-38 mm.; wings short and broad; 

 ground colour often pure yellow or only slightly reddish ; black 

 pattern thin, bat quite complete, giving the impression of an even 

 network and much less variable than in other races,; the females have 

 at the base of the wings a very extensive greenish-grey suffusion, such 

 as is never seen in other phoebe, but identical in colour to that of 

 Sicilian didyma of that sex ; on the underside the black pattern often 

 is as distinct as in punica, and always more than in tiisca ; the white 

 spaces often have the characteristic porcelain-glaze look of the former. 

 I call this race eDiijjunica ; types collected in May at S. Martino delle 

 Scale and other localities near Palermo. 



The name caucasica of Staudinger had already been used by that 

 author for a race of didyma ; it might be replaced by caucasicola. 



(To he continued.) 



:i^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



A Note from a Correspondent in Sweden. — The following is 

 an extract from a letter written to my friend, Mr. E. Step, from 

 near Stockholm, by Mr. Bassett Digby, F.R.G.S., F.Am.G.S. :— 

 "Funny how in England we coddle up our hted Papilio machaon 

 and seem to think them fragile folk. Why up here in the 

 latitude of Petrograd and northern Labrador, I find the imago and fat 

 and care-free larvffi pretty numerous on and around isolated plants on 

 stony beaches of rocky islands out in the Baltic, that for nearly half 

 the year are icebouud and snowed under. Is this news to you ? They 

 seem, by the way, very keen on the beaches ; hardly ever occur inland 

 on the islands. I have found the larvas on plants actually growing in 

 the water with salt waves always lapping round the base. Presumably 

 they have to acquire a sort of seafaring knack of hitching up their 

 slacks and holding tight in stormy weather, when the stems must sway 

 alarmingly. And we get on some islands a glorious big ' copper,' 

 who looks like our extinct ' large copper' of Huntingdon. He seems 

 very sluggish and clings to flowery patches of swampy meadow just 



