368 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Valeriana rubra ; its flight and habit, he adds, here appear to be very 

 similar to those of Polyommatus icarus, but, if disturbed, it flies wildly and 

 to some distance but returns again after a time when it has recovered 

 from its fright ; sometimes several are seen flying together, and, at other 

 times, it is seen flying with species of other genera or feeding with them 

 on flowers ; near Naples, it flies with Polyommatus icarus and Lanyia 

 telicanus, at the blossoms of the common Heliotr opium ; at Pompeii, 

 where the Spartium grows among the scoriae, the butterfly is not rare 

 flying in company with Pontia daplidice and Pieris rapae. ' Verity says 

 (Bull. Soc. Ent. Ital.j xxxvi., p. 137) that, in the Lucca district, it occurs 

 commonly in spring, but more so in the autumn ; the $ having a 

 particularly rapid flight, a practised eye being necessary to capture it on 

 the wing ; it prefers a thistle on which to rest, but flies off rapidly as one 

 approaches, returning, however, to its chosen post as soon as the danger 

 appears to be past, and from which it appears never to wander far 

 during the whole of its existence ; the only way to obtain the species in 

 numbers is to hunt them in a field of " erba medica " (? lucerne), of 

 the flowers of which they are very fond. Stefanelli says (Bull. Soc. 

 Ent. Ital., xxxii., p. 332) that, in Tuscany, it is common, both in the 

 lowlands and on the hills, haunting meadows, fields, rocky and grassy 

 places, hedges, and open woods, resting with especial fondness on 

 Colutea arborescens. Eocci observes (op. cit., xxxviii., p. 76) that it is 

 not very common in the neighbourhood of Turin, where it occurs, how- 

 ever, in the meadows and low-lying ground. Failli-Tedaldi states (Bull. 

 Soc. Ent. Ital., 1878, p. 250) that, in Sicily, it loves to settle on the under- 

 side of vine-leaves, and, sometimes, in autumn, on the naked earth, and 

 that, when disturbed from its resting-place, it quickly returns to the 

 same spot ; near Castelbuono, it haunts the black vetch, growing by the 

 stream there. 



Probable hybernating stage of Lampides boeticus. — In 1847, 

 Bellier suggested (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., p. 105) that L. boeticus hyber- 

 nated in Central France in the imaginal state. In that year, in the 

 neighbourhood of Chartres, the species was very abundant, and from 

 a number of larvae collected on Colutea, and that pupated in due 

 course, he reared many imagines after a pupal period of ten or twelve 

 days, whilst two examples did not appear till November 17th, after a 

 pupal period of about three months. He considered that these late 

 emergences were very extraordinary and thought, as stated above, 

 that they tended to suggest that the species might hybernate as an 

 imago, whilst it indicated a capacity for existing unharmed, in the 

 pupal stage, for a considerable time at a cool period of the year. 

 He considered it unlikely that the butterfly laid its eggs in the 

 autumn and that the latter went through the winter, because the 

 newly-hatched larvae would possibly not be able to find the pods, in 

 which the larvae live, at some distance from the point at which they had 

 been laid, and he thought it much more likely that the imago laid its 

 eggs on the calyx of the flower, and that the newly-hatched larva thus 

 found itself quite near its food, and he further opined that these 

 hybernating imagines did not couple until such time as the flowers 

 of the Colutea commence to show. Some years later (in 1860), 

 Milliere reared the species, and Newman, professing to quote Milliere 

 states (Brit. Butts., p. 118) categorically, that the last disclosed 

 females lay their eggs on the twigs of Colutea arborescens, but they 



