190 the entomologist. 



Varieties of Brenthis euphrosyne and Thecla w-album. — 

 I should like to record some remarkable colour varieties of butterflies 

 from the Chilterns. In 1920, in a certain wood, I secured a specimen 

 of Brenthis euphrosyne having the underside of a deep, almost 

 uniform russet, with dull leaden instead of silvery metallic spotting ; 

 also three other specimens of tints ranging back to the type. This 

 year, from about twenty bred specimens, one has emerged of this 

 same form, whilst the wild captures include another, very extreme, 

 two intermediate forms and two with creamy undersides. Strangely 

 enough in all these specimens the uppersides are nearly or quite 

 typical. The first euphrosyne seen in 1921, in a small copse some 

 few miles from the wood above alluded to, is probably the strangest 

 specimen of them all. The whole insect, upper and underside, is 

 toned a purplish-mahogany colour, the border metallic spots being 

 magenta-tinted and small. A specimen secured this year has the 

 upperside somewhat similar with typical underside ; another has a 

 dull tawny upperside with underside of an olive-grey tint. All 

 these varieties are males. In 1919 I beat five full-fed larvae of Thecla 

 w-album close to High Wycombe which produced the same number 

 of butterflies, one of which I think must be unique. Its colour, both 

 upper and underside, is golden khaki, rather similar to the khaki 

 form of Lycaena corydon ( $ ) occurring at times at Eoyston and 

 elsewhere. Other less important varieties met with are pale C. 

 pamphilus and golden H. linea. — G. B. Oliver; High Wycombe, 

 June 15th, 1922. 



C. phl^as, var. — On May 28th last, when taking Lepidoptera at 

 Horsley, Surrey, I netted a rather unusual specimen of C. phlaeas. 

 The fore wings are a bright golden colour, deeper at the base and 

 gradually getting to a paler shade towards the margins, the hind 

 wings as in typical specimens, but with row of blue spots as in var. 

 caeruleo -punctata. The specimen, which is a perfectly fresh one, is 

 still paler in colour when looked at at an angle, being distinctly 

 primrose in shade. I have never seen a specimen exactly like it 

 before; the pale golden specimens I have seen have had the band in 

 the hind wings also of that colour, which is not the case with this 

 specimen. — Augustus E. Stafford; 98, Cowley Eoad, Mortlake, 

 S.W. 14. 



Hybridisation in Nature. — On June 10th, in a marshy field, 

 I took at rest on a grass stem a pair of moths. The female was 

 Z. trifolii, newly emerged, and the male was A. stutices in somewhat 

 worn condition. They remained " in cop " for about half an hour 

 only, the female being rather restless. Up to the time of writing no 

 eggs have been laid. A. statices was this year fully a fortnight 

 earlier than Z. trifolii, which is only just beginning in this particular 

 field. The observation seems interesting as affording evidence of 

 the close relationship between the two families. — Wm. Fassnidge ; 

 47, Tennyson Eoad, Southampton. 



Cannibalism among Cucullia verbasci. — On June 23rd I found 

 some of the larvas of Cucullia verbasci on a plant of great mullein. 

 I placed them in a zinc larva cage, and gave them a good supply of 

 the leaves of mullein. On the following day one of them was seen 



