20 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



windows, all the specimens being 2 s ; but we have evidence that 

 pairing in the south of France and in Spain takes place in very early 

 spring, so that, if this were for hybernating purposes, g s also 

 should be found. With regard to occasional imagines being seen 

 on the wing late (and early) in the year, reference will show the 

 appearance of imagines in the autumn, winter, and spring to 

 be not uncommon, but we may here notice — November igth, 

 1875, at Exeter, at fuchsia flowers (Hellins) ; January and Febru- 

 ary, at Gravesend (Clifford) ; a very good specimen captured at 

 Southsea, November 27th, 1867, the weather cold and frosty but 

 fine, it had been flying about the garden for a day or two before, 

 and had eventually flown in at a window (Pasley) ; one flying actively 

 along a stone embankment near Plymouth on February 13th, 1866 

 (Piffard); March 7th, 1866, on the wing at Budleigh Salterton 

 (Thomson) ; April 18th, 1866, at Wareham (Fulford); imago emerged 

 December nth, 1887, at Clevedon, another seen flying along some 

 palings in a sheltered spot at Bath, occasionally alighting and bask- 

 ing in the sunshine, on January 31st, 1898, in mild weather (Jefferys), 

 January 3rd, 1899, at Hereford (Vaughan); January 27th, 1899, sent 

 alive from Torquay (Prout) ; February 18th, 1899, at Winchester 

 (Shepheard-Walwyn) ; March 20th, 1899, at Paul (Daws); April 2nd, 



1899, at Weymouth (Peachell); November 24th, 1899, November 28th, 



1900, at Truro (Rollason); February 28th, 1900, flew into a shop 

 at Guernsey (Luff); April 12th, 1900, at Apuldram (Ander- 

 son); one flying along the Parade at a tremendous pace on 

 April 3rd, 1902, a bright sunny day, at Torquay (Tutt). January 

 21st, 1865, freshly emerged in Paris (Fallou, Bull. Soc. Ent. Br., 1865, p. 

 5), February 7th, 1899, in room at Le Havre (Dupont), and February 

 12th, 1901, at Gembloux(Derenne), suggest much the same conditions for 

 central and northern France and Belgium as prevail here. One taken 

 inside a window on April 10th, 1900, in North London, slightly faded, 

 but otherwise in very fair condition (James); April 13th, 1900, at 

 flowers of Aubritia at Bognor (Fletcher) ; one beaten out of a bush at 

 Bournemouth in February, 1902 (Robertson). It must be conceded 

 that this is scant evidence to find as a result of search over the 

 entomological periodicals for close on 40 years. Horton records 

 (Ent. Mo. Mag., ii., p. 165) that, in the autumn of 1865, he bred a 

 second (autumnal) brood of this species out-of-doors. He further notes 

 that he opened the abdomina of all the $ s without detecting any eggs 

 in them, and asks whether it is possible that the eggs develop during 

 hybernation ! We are inclined to ask whether the abdomina of 

 any bred, unpaired, unfed 2 s, would disclose ova at any period of the 

 year. It is the general opinion now among the most observant British 

 lepidopterists that very few imagines of this species ever get through 

 their hybernation safely in this country, less from extreme temperature 

 than from long-continued periods of wet and cold. Walker and other 

 first-class observers consider that the May and June examples, which 

 usually presage a later abundance in this country, when, on rare occa- 

 sions, it really is abundant here, are immigrants, possibly offsets from the 

 multitudes that occur regularly in May in the hottest Mediterranean 

 districts; these lay eggs that produce larvae which, according to 

 the season, are fullfed either in late June or early July, and the 

 pupae produce in due course imagines in July and August; these 



