208 THE entomologist's kecord. 



the stone quarries we found Plebsius aegon male and female in good 

 condition and took a short series, but they did not differ much from 

 those taken later on the heaths near Moreton and Corfe Castle. In 

 Tutt's British Butterflies, Bankes is quoted as saying that in Dorset 

 females appear never to exhibit any blue colouring except for a few 

 scattered blue scales occasionally to be seen at the base of the forewing, 

 but this is hardly correct as in the short series taken several have a> 

 considerable amount of blue scaling on both fore- and hindwings, and 

 in two specimens the blue extends as far as the orange row of lunules. 

 Some females are fuscous on all wings, but some have the orange 

 lunules strongh^ marked on the hindwings and fa.intly on the forewings. 

 The males also vary considerably in colour, the majority being 

 purple, but a few having almost the blue of var. niasseyi. The smallest 

 male only measured 21mm., and one or tv/o have the black spots in 

 hindwings well developed. One male has basal spots to the underside 

 of forewings. This appears to be the ab. unipuncta (Mousley) but the 

 spots in this case are double, tha upper one round, and the lower one a 

 streak with a white border. Another male has the discoidal spots on 

 upperside of forewings and more faintly on the lower wings. Several 

 visits were made to Maiden Castle, a splendid earthwork about two 

 miles from Dorchester, the camp being nearly a mile in length with 

 ditches about 90 feet deep. 



Our first visit was on July 27th, when no A. coridon were to be 

 seen, but later it became fairly plentiful, though females were always 

 scarce. A very large number of males were carefully examined for 

 discoidal spots (var. torgniensis), which are said to be not uncommon, 

 but only one was found and this would be more exactly described as a 

 thin line than a spot. Several males were taken with faint orange 

 spots on the upperside of hindwings, but no strongly marked specimen 

 was met with. I have found no trace of this marking in any of my 

 Herts specimens. 



On August 7th my brother took a fine male A. coridon ab. striata 

 at Maiden Castle, and on the same day I took a Polyommatus icarus 

 male in which the upper submedian spot is extended into a long 

 streak towards the upper basal spot, which seems to be rather an 

 unusual form. The submedian spots in the upper wings are also in a 

 much straighter line than usual, and the basal spots almost invisible. 

 Another male is quite without basal spots in upper wings {sbh. icarinus). 

 I was surprised to find a large proportion of the female P. icarus 

 strongly marked with blue some being equal to those taken at Grange 

 and Loch Awe, as I thought the usual southern form was brown with 

 very slight blue scaling. Ruviiciajyhlaeas was not uncommon at Maiden 

 Castle. One very dark male and females measuring 34mm. were 

 taken, but no striated form could be met with. 



I had always looked upon HipparcJda semele as a wary beast to be 

 met with but not always taken on stony and difficult ground, but in 

 Dorset it swarmed in incredible numbers in many places, and would 

 almost settle on your boots. As is often the case when an insect is 

 extremely plentiful, we did not pay sufficient attention to it, but 

 among samples taken are one or two males nearly black, and one male 

 from Lulworth with very light and bright patches on the lower wings. 

 A bleached but badly torn Epinephele jurtina was taken at Swanage 

 and also a Coenonympha pamphilus with one bleached wing. A con- 



