216 



BRITISH LEPlDOtTERA. 



seems to make it intentionally conspicuous as a warning to enemies. 

 Mathew writes (in litt.) that the abundance of the larvae from April 

 to December, at Malta, suggests continuous-broodedness in that 

 locality, imagines as early as April 14th, larvae about a quarter 

 grown on April 27th, and larvae continuously on until December 

 4th, when some were quite small (possibly the larvae of the April 

 imagines), helps to bear out this view, but they are most abundant 

 from July to October, and are sometimes so numerous that they 

 devour nearly all their foodplant, and may be observed -wandering 

 about looking for more ; many of these, he thinks, must die of 

 starvation. The larvae collected produced imagines very quickly 

 as a rule, but some examples of one lot, taken in the autumn of 

 1897, remained in the pupal state for more than 12 months. They 

 began to emerge in June, 1898, two appearing on the 17th, and 

 others during July, August, and September, whilst the ship was 

 in various parts of the Mediterranean ; the last, however, did not 

 come out until after his return home, and emerged at Dovercourt 

 on November 12th. The following table gives some interesting 

 details : 



DATE. 





LOCALITY. 



Nov. 



2, 



'62 



Gibraltar 



Nov. 



n, 



'62 



,, 



Sep. 



7, 



'64 



,, 



J^y 



6, 



'78 



Bulair Lines, 

 Sea of Marmora 



July 



26, 



'78 



Gallipoli 



June 



7, 



'97 



Crete 



J^y 



10, 



'97 



Malta 



Sep. 



3o, 



'97 



», 



Oct. 



14, 



'97 



,, 



Oct. 



18, 



'97 



,, 



Oct. 



2 5> 



'97 



,, 



Nov. 



4> 



'97 



, » 



Dec. 



4, 



'97 



,, 



April 



i4> 



'98 



,, 



April 



27, 



'98 



,, 



May 



11, 



'98 



,, 



May 



19, 



'98 



,, 



June 



17, 



'98 



At sea 



June 



28, 



'98 



,, 



July 



1, 



'98 



,, 



July 



29, 



'98 



Alghero, 



Sardinia 



Aug. 



19, 



'98 



Leghorn 



Aug. 



30, 



'98 



Naples 



Sep. 



4> 



'98 



Palermo 



Sep. 



5. 



'98 



, , 



Sep. 



7, 



'98 



At sea 



Sep. 



9, 



'98 



Malta 



Sep. 



10, 



'98 



,, 



Sep. 



1 6, 



'98 



,, 



Nov. 



12, 



>S 



Dovercourt 



REMARKS. 



Took 7 fullgrown larvae on E. paralias on sandhills 

 on the " neutral " ground. There had evidently 

 been a large number, but the others had spun up. 



Took 9 mere larvae. Dug in the sand at the roots ol 

 the spurge, but could not find any pupae. 



Larvae same locality, common. 



Found 6 fullgrown larvae. 



Bred one of above. 



Frequently attracted by our electric lights. 



Larvae of all sizes abundant. 



Small larvae still about. 



I Larvae of all sizes still to be seen — many of the small 



I larvae are destroyed by large spiders and centipedes. 



Larvae abundant. 



Small larvae still plentiful. 



Saw several small larvae, but they did not look very 



lively— weather has been cold lately. 

 One caught on board. 



Saw and took several larvae about quarter grown. 

 Larvae taken on April 27th spinning up. 

 Bred one of above. 

 Bred 2 from larvae taken at Malta last autumn. 



One bred from larvae taken at Malta last autumn. 



One 



Tw° » 

 0ne 



° ne » 

 °ue 



rwo 



One 



One 



