POLYOHMATUS (LYCLENA) AGESTIS. 117 



bable that the larva of Medon should habituate itself 

 to the food-plant of Artaxerxes. 



I am now able to offer the following evidence that 

 the larva of this species really does nourish itself on 

 the same species of food-plant in England as in 

 Scotland. 



On the 3rd June, 1877, Mr. J. E. Robson, of 

 Hartlepool, while searching Helianthemum vulgare 

 growing near the coast in his locality, found five larvae 

 of a Lyccena, and at once very kindly forwarded them 

 to me; on comparing them with the figures I had 

 taken of larvae of Artaxerxes in 1868, I found them to 

 be in every respect precisely alike. These larvae soon 

 fed upon Helianthemum, protected by a glass cylinder, 

 and they duly changed to pupae ; two of them were 

 unfortunately attacked with mould, but the other three 

 disclosed three differently marked butterflies, viz. on 

 July 2nd, 5th, and 7th. These appeared to be respec- 

 tively Salmacis, Artaxerxes, and Agestis above, but to 

 partake most of Salmacis beneath. 



After this result, I became more than ever desirous 

 of seeing larvae of the typical Agestis from the southern 

 downs, and it was not many weeks before Mr. Wm. R. 

 Jeffrey most kindly put me in the way of making their 

 acquaintance from the egg onwards, by his capturing 

 several typical females as they were flying over and 

 alighting upon Helianthemum vulgare, on a Kentish 

 chalk down. They readily deposited their eggs on 

 sprays of the plant, and I had the pleasure to receive 

 a share of them from my friend on the 13th of 

 September, when I found them all laid on the under- 

 sides of the leaves to which they firmly adhered, 

 singly, and in little groups of twos, threes, or more 

 together. 



The egg is smaller than that of JEgon, though very 

 like it in form and sculpture, being circular, flattened, 

 with a central depression on the upper surface, the 

 shell covered with a coarse, prominent reticulation, 

 gradually becoming finer towards the nearly smooth 



