340 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



but always seemed, like Langia telicanus, to require to feel a protecting 

 cover for the egg by the dorsum of the abdominal end. Over a score 

 of eggs were seen to be laid, but, it being impossible to remember 

 where they were, only some six or eight were found . A female L. telicanus 

 came and laid an egg on the Ulex in precisely the same manner, 

 whilst the L. boeticus was being watched ; so that eggs found might be 

 sometimes those of L. telicanus. Eggs of L. telicanus, when laid, are much 

 greener than those of L. boeticus, which are whitish, even at first. The 

 female flew only a few inches or a foot or so between each aet of oviposi- 

 tion. At Luz, July 18th, 1906, 1 saw a female L. boeticus lay an egg on 

 Ulex ; it was laid at the base of the terminal spine, close down in the 

 axil of a last small spine. On July 5th, 1907, at Guethary, I came 

 across a plant of Ulex nanus with a few open flowers, and, on this 

 plant, I found near the end of one branch four or five eggs of 

 Lampides boeticus and another on a well-developed flower-bud (f -inch 

 long). The great mass of the Ulex was still much less advanced. 



I searched afterwards two or three other plants that were well 

 forwards, but found no more eggs. Unfortunately I felt no certainty 

 that these eggs were those of L. boeticus, and, having no proper apparatus 

 for observation, made none on the young larvae, and, in fact, all escaped 

 in some way when newly-hatched, and I obtained only one larva, which 

 fed up easily on Lotus corniculatus, and resulted in a butterfly, at Eeigate, 

 on August 28th. On August 6th, 1906, and a few days preceding, Langia 

 telicanus and Lampides boeticus had been emerging, and, on the date 

 mentioned, two males and two females of the latter were all sleeved 

 over a flowering spray of Colutea arborescens, and, at 12.30 p.m., the 

 most recently-emerged female was observed in copula with one of the 

 males. They had paired since noon, and were still paired at 3 p.m., 

 but separate at 3.40 p.m. Examination of the twigs on the morning 

 of August 7th, resulted in a score of eggs being found on the Colutea, 

 chiefly on the end of the spray on the youngest flower-buds, but an odd 

 one or two on a leaf, a petiole, or a petal (Chapman). Graves observes 

 (in litt.) : At 3.40 p.m., on October 4th, 1907, near Cairo, a slightly 

 worn female of L. boeticus was observed by me ovipositing on Lablab 

 (Dolichos lablab, L.), a twining herb of the "pulse" family, with long- 

 stalked racemes of flowers. After dropping on two or three flowers 

 the insect settled on a bud, and, climbing to the extremity, deposited 

 an egg about one-eighth of an inch below the termination of the bud, 

 curving the abdomen almost to a semicircle at the moment of 

 oviposition. After resting about a quarter of a minute it rose and flew 

 over the plant twice, then alighted on one of the long stalks and 

 walked rapidly along it, till it reached a nascent bud, when it 

 repeated the process, moving the hindwings slightly up and down in 

 opposite directions, one wing going down as the other was drawn up. 

 The hindwings were very slightly apart at their anterior extremity, the 

 forewings closed, the antennae moving from side to side. After two 

 eggs had been laid in about three minutes, the insect flew to 

 a" leaf and rested, perched on the edge thereof, opening the wings till 

 they were at an angle of about 30° at most, and then closing them. 

 On October 18th another female was seen ovipositing on Lablab at 



II a.m. In this case three eggs were laid on an unopened flower in 

 two-and-a-half minutes. The alternate " rubbing " movement of the 

 hindwings was noted. A female taken on the same day laid a large 



