MELITiEA ATHALTA. 81 



Me lima At ji alia. 

 Plate XII, fig. 1. 



On the 16th of May, 1871, 1 received from my friend 

 Mr. W. H. Harwood, of Colchester, six larvae of Melitc&a 

 Athalia, which he had found, along with many more, 

 feeding on Melampyrum pratense. 



As this was not known as a food-plant of the larva, 

 Mr. Harwood' s discovery is of unusual interest, and it 

 may be well to record precisely how it took place. On 

 a warm day in May, 1871, Mr. Harwood was sitting 

 under a tree, discussing his lunch, when in compliance 

 with that curious law which, as Mr. Stainton long ago 

 made us observe (' Entomologists' Weekly Intelli- 

 gencer,' vol. i, p. 113 ; vol. viii, p. 193), so intimately 

 connects the entomologist's at fresco meals with 

 interesting discoveries in insect economy, his attention 

 was arrested by the movements of a dead leaf lying 

 amongst others on the ground before him. Presently 

 the head of a larva was protruded ; a further examina- 

 tion showed that its owner was engaged in eating a 

 small plant of Melampyrum pratense, and was but one 

 of a large colony similarly engaged. 



In previous years my friend had captured the imago 

 of Athalia in this locality, and had been puzzled, 

 because its generally reputed food-plants, Plantago 

 major and lanceolata could not be found there; but 

 now the secret was told, and although I have no doubt 

 but that, under varied conditions of locality and 

 climate, the larva feeds on various plants, yet I cannot 

 help thinking that in many of the English habitats of 

 the species M. pratense must be its food. Melampijrum 

 sylvaticum has I know been given in the list, but as 

 this seems to be a rare plant in Britain, and not to be 

 known in many places where the butterfly occurs, I am 

 inclined to believe that a small variety of M. pratense 

 may have been mistaken for it. 



vol. i. 6 



