LAMPIDES BOETICUS. 343 



spots. When Reaumur received the larvae they were very hungry, 

 owing to the pods of the Colutea being quite dried, as well as 

 the seeds ; having no fresh pods of this plant to offer them, he 

 tried them with green peas, to which they readily took, commencing 

 at once to bore into the interior of them. Chapman observes that 

 the young larva is very clever at hiding itself, probably by penetrating 

 at once into a flower-bud and staying there till half-grown, when it 

 may be found in half-open flowers. Some young larvae, however, 

 manage to live externally, and may be seen hiding squeezed in at the 

 bases of the spines of Ulex . When well-grown, the larvae are more easily 

 detected, and expose themselves quite freely amongst the flowers. 

 Of the excellent manner in which the small larva of Lampides boeticus 

 is protected by its colour, Chapman gives a good illustration. He 

 observes that, on July 18th, 1906, at Tuy, a very hot day, he had for 

 some time been carefully examining a little branch of Ulex for eggs 

 of Langia telicanus, and was just leaving, when, quite by accident, he 

 detected a larva of Lampides boeticus, 3*5mm. long, on a main thorn, its 

 head deeply buried in the axil, and almost exactly resembling in form, 

 colour, and position, flower-buds occupying similar positions in other 

 axils. He further notes that, he was never clearly able to distinguish 

 between the larvae of Langia telicanus and Lampides boeticus without a very 

 close and detailed examination, also that the larvae of the latter appear to 

 be at home on almost any leguminous shrub, can be easily reared on Lotus 

 cornicidatus, affect Adenocarpns and Ulex in northwest Spain, the latter 

 also being its food plant in southwest France ; the species appears, he says, 

 to be continuously-brooded in its permanent haunts, and, although it feeds 

 up in southwest France and northwest Spain with lightning rapidity 

 in hot weather, and there appear to be several broods in the summer, 

 whilst in suitable African localities there are possibly a dozen broods 

 a year, yet it can probably not stand anywhere a real winter in any 

 stage. At Vigo, or even Biarritz, it could possibly live through the 

 winter, but taking three or four months, instead of three or four weeks, 

 to complete its changes, no doubt many perishing, but probably enough 

 surviving to make a start the following spring. Milliere observes (Icon., 

 i., p. 245) that, in the Alpes-Maritimes, when young, the larva is 

 almost black, and it then attacks only the very young (hardly formed) 

 vesicular pods of Colutea arborescens. When older, it varies con- 

 siderably, being sometimes of a bright green colour, more rarely 

 brown. It lives, during August and September, in the pods of the 

 bladder-senna (Colutea arborescens), eating the seeds whilst they are 

 still green and unripe, and during its growth, it passes frequently from 

 one pod to another. Milliere further expresses his disbelief in the 

 statement made by some naturalists who say that the larva is first 

 found in June, remarking that the pods of Colutea arborescens are only 

 found from July onwards, and that, as the larva only eats the seeds, 

 it could not well appear before their development, and the earliest pods, 

 in spite of constant searching, have never yet furnished, or shown signs 

 of having been attacked by, the larvae of this species. This state- 

 ment is largely supported by Powell, who believes that the species 

 has no permanent home in the French Riviera, and avers that 

 only autumnal larvae are to be found there. We may point out 

 that the species is, however, not at all confined to Colutea in 

 Europe, Godart recording it as feeding on the common garden-pea, 

 and this is confirmed by Mrs. Wollaston (Ann. Mag. Nat, Hist., 5th 



