Insects. 



6211 



Green. The specimen measured 2 feet 10 inches long, and 3 feet 9f inches hroad 

 from points of fins ; it weighed 77 ft>s. — Arthur Husscy ; Rot liny dean ^ Hants, Juli/ 26, 



Poh/ommatus Arlaxerxes and P. Agestis. — In the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 6101) is a note 

 from Mr. Logan, who, with some others of our northern entomologists, has come to the 

 conclusion that P. Artaxerxes and P. Agestis are varieties of one and the same species, 

 but upon what grounds I must say 1 am quite in the dark. Dr. Lowe read, some 

 time back, a paper before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, to prove that P. Artaxerxes, 

 P. Salmacis and P. Agestis, were one and the same. Mr. G. Wailes, of Newcastle, 

 and Mr. Logan, are of the same opinion. It is strange that neither of these gentlemen 

 has ever seen the larva of P. Agestis. From this I think they have decided too pre- 

 maturely. Mr. Logan says, " I have never been able to induce any of our southern 

 collectors to send me the larva of P. Agestis, which must be common and easily found ;" 

 this proves that he does not know its habits. Although the imago is common, the larva 

 is not easily found. I discovered the larva of P. Agestis about eight years ago, and 

 have taken it every year when on the Deal coast; why most easily found there, 1 will 

 soon explain. I am surprised Mr. Logan has never sent to me for it. I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that it is quite different from the drawing of P. Arlaxerxes he so kindly 

 showed me when at Duddingstoue last season. P. Agestis appears at a different time, 

 is double brooded, and is different as to locality, food-plant and larva; its manner of 

 changing to the pupa state is different. What can make it a variety of an insect that 

 is not found in this country.'' The Helianthemura is common in many parts, but 

 there is no P. Artaxerxes, and P. Agestis will not feed on it ; so it cannot be from its 

 rarity of the usual food-plant that P. Agestis takes to the Erodium. P. Agestis was a 

 species, I think, before P. Artaxerxes was known. Why it is now to be a permanent 

 variety 1, for one, am at a loss to know. I have seen varieties of P. Agestis ; these must 

 now be called varieties of the permanent variety of P. Agestis : this will sound strange. 

 The following is the history of P. Agestis, which I should like to see side by side with 

 P. Artaxerxes, and it would then be seen that there are no two facts alike in their his- 

 tory : — The first brood comes out at the end of May ; it is not so abundant as the August 

 brood, and is much smaller. The larva is found in July, feeding on or under Ero- 

 dium cicutarium, which grows here in large patches or beds, in many places apart from 

 other herbage; and it is from this cause that the larvae are so easily found. Having no 

 legs, like many other larvae they cannot feed on the tops of the plant. The common 

 blue (P. Alexis) swarms in many places, but the larvae are very seldom found, from a 

 similar cause. On pulling aside the branches of the Erodium, the larvae and pnpas 

 are found on the sand beneath them ; while the larvae of P. Arlaxerxes spin up on 

 grass, dead stalks or the surface of stones; this, I think, is a reason quite sufficient to 

 separate it from Agestis, and to establish each as a species. — H. J. Harding ; 1 , York 

 Street, Church Street, Shoreditch. 



[When my contributors differ from me on any point whereon I have expressed a 

 decided opinion, it is, I think, not otherwise than courteous to support my own pre- 

 viously expressed views by any legitimate appeal to facts within ray absolute knowledge. 

 Now the identity of Agestis and Artaxerxes is my subject; I most unequivocally ex- 

 pressed my opinion as to this identity more than twenty five years ago, in the 



