lis fHE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



A remarkable male specimen of this butterfly, with the under 

 side of hind wing and apex of fore wing of a bright canary-yellow, 

 was sent me by Mr. E. F. Barrington, taken on 19fch January 

 last, in the cabin of N. Arklow Light-ship. The apex, costa, and 

 spot on the upper side of fore wings are faintly black. I presume 

 it is a hybernated specimen that was attracted on board in the 

 autumn. 



PiERis NAPi, L. — Widely distributed, and very common. It 

 varies widely in the markings of both broods, but the horeo- 

 morphism does not seem to me to be so marked in Ireland as in 

 Great Britain, The first brood is generally characterised in the 

 male by a somewhat darker apex and spot on fore wing, and in 

 both sexes by a wide suffusion of the nervures on the under side. 

 Females also not unfrequently occur with a dusky suffusion on 

 the bases and all the nervures of the upper side of all wings, the 

 spots being also blurred and fused with the shading of the 

 nervures; thus in some degree approaching the alpine var. 

 bi'yonice, which is usually ochreous in colour. I have specimens 

 from Monaghan and Tyrone in Ulster ; Markree, Sligo, in the 

 West ; Killarney in the South ; and elsewhere, some of which 

 have the white ground faintly tinted with primrose. I have also 

 a male from Killarney, taken in May, with a very black apex, but 

 no spot. The second brood, however, in Ireland, frequently 

 preserves, to a certain extent, the type of the first emergence, 

 containing individuals with strongly suffused nervures on the 

 under side. This may, perhaps, be the result of a cold sunless 

 summer. There is a form which I have taken freely in August 

 at Minehead, Go. Waterford ; Favour Eoyal, Co. Tyrone, and else- 

 where, described by Mr. Barrett as follows : — " In the North of 

 Ireland, especially in the second brood, females occur with the 

 apex strongly black, spots large, and nervures above very much 

 blackened ; and very large males with the apex deep black, and 

 a large round spot on the upper side of fore wing. In all these 

 dark forms the green veins below are very dilated and blackened 

 in proportion." The specimens I have agree with the above 

 description, except that the nervures of the under side are less 

 blackened than in the first brood, and those of the upper side 

 of hind wing not shaded, which throws the strongly-marked fore 

 wing into great relief. In most specimens the apical blotch is 

 quadrangular, but in two the apex is merely broadly streaked 

 with the dark nervures. According to Mr. Dale (' Hist, of Brit. 

 Butterflies ') this form is the var. najJcece of Esper. Others hold 

 that the only character attached to this varietal name is the 

 slight shading of the nervures of the under side of hind wing. 

 An aberration exists in both sexes and broods, in which the 

 under side of hind wing is bright primrose ; and this occurs more 

 frequently in the second brood. Two specimens of a very beautiful 

 yellow aberration have been taken, similar to the one described 



