258 {April, 
Not to be confounded with Leiophron apicalis, Curt., B. E., which 
it somewhat resembles in colours ; but the radial cell of Z. apicalis is 
much smaller, and the petiole not nearly so long. 
I have taken two females of this remarkable insect ; one at Bielsa 
in the Spanish Pyrenees, and the other (to my great surprise) in a 
wood in North Devonshire. The English specimen is somewhat more 
highly coloured, having rufous points to the mandibles, and the meta- 
thorax rufescent. 
St. Albans: February, 1872. 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MELIT#A ATHALIA. 
BY W. BUCKLER. 
I am indebted to the kindness of that indefatigable collector, Mr. 
W. H. Harwood, for the opportunity of describing the larva of this 
species, and also of adding to the list of its food-plants one, which I 
have never seen mentioned in any work. 
On a warm day in last May, Mr. Harwood was sitting under a tree 
and discussing his lunch, when, in comphance with that curious law, 
which, as Mr. Stainton long ago made us observe, so intimately connects 
the entomologist’s al fresco meals with interesting discoveries in insect 
ceconomy, his attention was arrested by the movement of a dead leaf 
lying amongst others on the ground before him. Presently the head of 
a larva was protruded; a further examination showed that its owner 
was engaged in eating a small plant of IZelampyrum pratense, and was 
but one of a large colony similarly engaged. 
In previous years, my friend had captured the imago of Athalia in 
this locality, and had been puzzled, because its generally reputed food- 
plants, Plantago major and lanceolata, could not be found there; but 
now the secret was told: and, although I have no doubt but that, under 
varied conditions of locality and climate, the larva feeds on various 
plants, yet I cannot help thinking that, in many of the English habitats 
for the species, JZ. pratense must be its food. Melampyrum sylvaticum 
has, I know, been given in the list; but, as this seems to be a rare plant 
in Britain, and not to be known in many places where the butterfly 
occurs, I am inclined to believe that a small variety of IZ. pratense 
may have been mistaken for it. 
To the larvee, which Mr. Harwood sent me on May 16th, I gave 
the choice between Melampyrum pratense and Plantago lanceolata, but 
found the latter quite neglected by them, even when they had finished 
up their supply of the former plant. On May 24th, they began to 
