'282 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Lycasnids taken in Syria, e.g., Plebeius nicholli, Polyommatus icarus, 

 Aricia astrarche, etc. ; in the last two species, the reddish band of the 

 underside of the hindwings is always pronounced." It might appear 

 that the Lebanon is the boundary between the two forms antiochena 

 and persica (bellis, Staud.), from Mrs. Nicholl's assertion (Ent. Rec, 

 xiii., p. 209) that they inhabit the Lebanon at different eleva- 

 tions, antiochena, from 2000ft. -4000ft., andbellis (following Staudinger), 

 from 4000ft. -5000ft., but our own beautiful specimens of antiochena 

 were taken by Graves at an elevation of 5000ft., and the magnificent 

 specimens of antiochena in the British Museum coll., taken by Mrs. 

 Nicholl herself, are labelled as having been taken at 5500ft., 4500ft.. 

 7000ft., etc., at the latter elevation, somewhat more suffused, but still 

 distinctly antiochena both on the upper- and undersides. Her further 

 remark (op. cit. pp. 172, 207) that bellis (helena) was not uncommon in 

 the Lebanon at the elevation named, occurring at Djebel Kineyseh and 

 Djebel Sunnin, and also (op. cit. pp. 171-2) that, on May 14th, 1900, at 

 Beit Chabab, on May 17th, 1900, on the lower slopes of the Djebel 

 Sunnin. she took only var. antiochena, but that, on May 19th, on the 

 eastern side of the ridge, bellis only occurred, but no antiochena, whilst 

 from June 14th-17th, on the Djebel Sunnin, again only bellis were 

 taken (op. cit., p. 207), and no antiochena, suggests that she is only 

 dealing here with more-highly and less-highly developed forms of the 

 same var. antiochena. Certainly the specimens in the British Museum 

 coll., from the Djebel Kineyseh, etc., are antiochena, and not bellis, 

 persica, or any other oriental race. 



Egglaying. — Females observed flying around clumps of red-clover 

 (Tri folium pratensis) on May 22nd, 1886, and others on June 6th, 

 1896, were noticed to settle successively on the flower-heads that were 

 not yet quite fully out, an examination of these heads showing many 

 eggs, three or four, or even more, sometimes being found on the same 

 head ; further examination showed that most of the heads had had 

 •eggs deposited on them. Some 2 s confined over a plant of T. pratensis 

 in the garden, laid very freely on the flowers (Brabant). Chapman 

 observes (in lift.) that the favourite position for the egg to be deposited 

 is outside the calyx, at its margin, just below the calyx-teeth, or just 

 on the base of a tooth, rarely just appreciably lower, and occasionally 

 on the corolla. He observes that this is very similar to the habit of 

 Cupido minim us, and notes that these two insects, having somewhat 

 similarly -marked undersides, had been erroneously supposed to be 

 closely related ; as this is not so, he wonders whether there is any 

 natural co- relation between the habit and the pattern. Frohawk 

 observes that about 36 eggs laid in confinement on July5th-6th, 1907, 

 on young plants of Anthyllis vulneraria, by four $ s sent from Vienna, 

 were all placed on the calyces of the flowers, mostly near the base, and 

 often hidden between them. Eggs laid May 23rd, 1886, hatched 

 before June 6th (Brabant) and produced larvae that gave a second 

 brood in July of the same .year, others laid July 5th, 1907, 

 hatched July 15th, and produced larvae that hybernated (Frohawk). 

 [Buhl's statement (Pal. Gross.- Schmett., p. 767) that it " lays its eggs 

 in rows on the foodplant," and Breit's (Soc. Ent., xiv., p. 99) that 

 "the eggs are laid on Scabiosa succisa, and other low plants," are 

 evidently far from the truth.] 



Ovum. — The egg is of the usual Plebeiid form (cheese-shaped), 



