6 
descended, and every specimen disappeared as if by magic, and no 
amount of sweeping would induce them to rise. Seeking shelter from 
the increasing rain under one of the great firs, I soon discovered what 
had become of the little beastie, for the lee side of the trunk was 
literally swarming with them. So here, again, the anathematised 
weather enabled one to carefully select and make one of the best 
bags of the holiday. 1 found them also on the limestone and on the 
birch trunks. Sometimes they were very difficult to detect, and my 
royal friend initiated me into the mysteries of “blowing,” at which 
he was an adept. By compressing the lips and giving short vigorous 
puffs, directed on to apparently bare trunks, a flutter or turned-up 
margin of a wing would locate an insect one had hitherto been looking 
at and yet not seen. 
On the 6th August we again visited the same locality, and found 
very few ménorata on the tree-trunks. Walking over the patches of 
eye bright, I kicked up a large number of what proved to be chiefly 
females, and plucking several stems of the plant I found ova on all 
of them. The eggs were laid singly near the end of the spike, where 
the leaves and buds grow closely together. By parting these with the 
fingers the eggs were seen on the upper surfaces and near the edges 
of the leaves. I took up several more spikes which females had just 
left, and found the eggs were oval, white, and under a pocket lens 
ribbed longitudinally. The following day they had changed to orange. 
All the books I had with me gave the pabulum of the larvee of this 
species as unknown. But there was no doubt whatever that the ova of 
this insect were deposited on the plant mentioned. Itwill give you some 
idea of the lavish occurrence when I say I was unable to pluck a single 
plant that did not contain ova. I called Mr. King’s attention to this, 
and the fact was confirmed ; for after a while he said he had found a 
flower spike without ova, but on further examination together we 
discovered a solitary egg. The plants gathered were placed ina glass 
of water and kept in my room; but on returning from a few days’ 
visit to Inverness my kind hostess had thrown them away, thinking 
they were only flowers ; so unfortunately I obtained no larve. Later 
on we made a further visit to the locality, but this time found only 
the transparent egg-shells, and yet no signs of larvee. 
My captures are divided into two groups, as you may observe. The 
first with complete dark bands and suffused with greenish grey ; the 
second lighter, discoidal, and with that part of the dark band sur- 
rounding the discoidal spot either pale grey or white, leaving the spot 
very conspicuous. ‘This form was the more numerous of the two ; 
it was also more ochreous in colour. Among some hundreds exa- 
mined I only found three or four with the dark band broken trans 
versely. 
On the evening of August 23rd, among the alders on Spey side I 
captured Melanthia bicolorata and var. plumbata. ‘The type is larger 
than those I have taken in Kent, and the smoky-blue border is both 
darker and broader. Var. plumbata is intermediate between those of 
