364 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



was over in Ireland, and I found the larvae feeding on almost every 

 buckthorn bush in the place. Some bushes, quite isolated, had been 

 discovered just the same. In a walled-in garden I had placed about 

 half a dozen bushes of B. catharticus by themselves ; these had been 

 patronised too. I observed one very late female depositing eggs. My 

 next visit was at the end of August. Whenever the sun was out G, 

 rhamni was out too, and one morning I should think I could have 

 netted about fifty, nearly all males; from which I infer that the females 

 lie low in the autumn. The ground over which the bushes have been 

 planted is rather less than 500 acres, partly plantation and partly open 

 ground covered with bracken, &c. The buckthorn bushes do not do 

 well, and I doubt there being more than 800 healthy ones growing. 

 This means they are pretty widely scattered. The butterflies are 

 generally to be seen feeding on thistle-heads, black knapweed or 

 scabious, and have formed three or four distinct colonies; at least, so it 

 seemed in the autumn. In my opinion the butterfly is now thoroughly 

 established, and, as long as the food-plant continues to grow, it should 

 thrive. Their power of scent (?) must be wonderful for a limited 

 number of butterflies, turned out in a strange land, after an interval 

 of some months, succeed, first to find each other, and then to find the 

 scattered bushes. — E. B. Purefoy, 16th Lancers. 



PoLiA NiGRociNCTA. — In reply to Mr. Thorpe's question, **Is it 

 usual for a portion of the ova of Folia nigrocincta to hatch out in the 

 autumn?" (Entom. xxix. 287) I answer no; but — as the boy said 

 when asked if it always rained in the north, "No, sometimes it snaas" 

 (snows) — I have known P. nigrocincta eggs to hatch partially, exactly 

 as Mr. Thorpe's are described to have done ; but if your readers will 

 refer to the ' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' vol. vi. p. 60, it will 

 be seen that the whole brood is known to *' sometimes " hatch out in 

 autumn and hybernate small, &c. ; and in the * Entomologist,' vol. x. 

 p. 20, Mr. James Leather states that over 200 eggs deposited by a 

 bred female of Folia nigrocincta hatched out on April 20th, 1876, and 

 concludes, "My chief object in sending these notes to the 'Entomologist' 

 is that they may settle the question whether or no the larva hybernates. 

 It has been stated that such is the case. This is now proved not to 

 be so," &c. Our old friend H. D. (Ent. Mo. Mag. vi. p. 90) says 

 Mr. Gregson has certainly made a ** mistake in his accounts of the 

 larva of this species." But no mistake was made; and now, after 

 twenty years, we seem to be all right, and the genus Folia wrong; for 

 if all Polias *' should hatch in spring only," then nigrocincta is not a 

 Folia: sometimes it '' snaas," that's all I Nevertheless, Mr. Thorpe's 

 fact and question bring out how little we know, reminding us of the 

 old fable, " Once there was a wise man and a fool; the wise man 

 studied his subject and decided; the fool decided ! " Old entomologists 

 will remember Folia occulta in our books and lists. At that time we 

 had nine Polias in our lists; six of them have been deleted, and a now 

 dubious one added, nigrocincta, leaving chi, which certainly, under my 

 care, at various times has hatched out in the autumn just as nigrocincta 

 has repeatedly done. If all Polias ''only hatch in spring," then we 

 can only retain flavicincta as representative of the genus Folia in our 

 lists. I may say I never bred flavicincta, nor do I know anything 



