POLTOMMATUS (LYCiENA) ARION. 189 



various vetches, which of course they would not eat, 

 and must have soon died. In March, 1869, Professor 

 Zeller toldus in the 'Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' 

 vol. VI, p. 10, what his experience had been, and set 

 us right as to the food-plant, Thymus serpyllum ; so 

 next year (1 870), when Mr. Buckler forwarded me some 

 eggs, June 21st, both of us felt confident the way was 

 clear to a full knowledge of the life-history. The larvae 

 hatched on June 24th, and were placed on wild thyme 

 flowers, and fed away most satisfactorily ; several of 

 them got through one moult, and then about the 

 middle of July they all ceased feeding and died off. 

 On 26th July I visited a locality for the species, and 

 found traces of the larvae having fed on several heads 

 of thyme flowers, but could find no larvae either on the 

 plants or under them. 



In 1872, July 1st, Mr. Merrin sent me eggs, and the 

 larvae hatched in two or three days, but they must 

 soon have died, for I find nothing more noted about 

 them ; I noticed, however, on the thyme flowers a 

 small coleopterous larva not unlike them in colour and 

 figure. June 24th, 1873, Mr. Merrin again sent me 

 eggs, and the larvae began to hatch immediately, and 

 were placed for a day or two on flowers of garden 

 thyme, and again I noticed a little beetle larva ; on 

 July 1st came more eggs from Mr. Merrin, and by this 

 time I had wild thyme ready for them, planted in a 

 large flower-pot, and full of bloom ; on this some of 

 the larvae lived till July 28th, when they were seen to 

 be restless as if in search of something I had not given 

 them, and after that I could note no more. On 23rd 

 May, 1875, Mr. Gr. F. Mathew searched carefully the 

 thyme plants in the haunts of last year's butterflies, 

 but found only beetle larvae, by this time black in 

 colour, and similar larvae were found by a local col- 

 lector ; on July 6th and 22nd, Mr. Bignell and Mr. 

 Mathew sent me living butterflies, some of which laid 

 eggs, but I was able to add nothing more to the notes 

 made in previous years. 



