DIURNAL LEPIDOPTERA OF ST. ANDREWS. 
5 
taken most of the insects mentioned below. On the N.W. side of the town ar e 
the links, which run north for about ten miles, till they reach the mouth of the 
river Eden. Here I have taken many insects. In the month of July this year 
the beautiful blue Polyommatus Alexis was particularly abundant, and here also, 
on the 18th of the same month, I saw a specimen of Macroglossa stellatarum. 
The only museum of Natural History here is that in the United College build¬ 
ings, the specimens in which, however, are fast going to decay from want of 
attention. A few years ago a course of lectures on Natural History was de¬ 
livered in the University, but, owing to the small number of students that 
attended, I am sorry to say it was given up. 
Pontia brassicse 
-rapes 
-napi 
Vanessa urticse 
-io 
- atalanta 
Hipparchia megeera 
-janira 
-hyp eran thus 
Lycsena phleeas 
Polyommatus alexis 
Pontia brassicce. —This Butterfly, although common here, is by no means so 
plentiful as the two following, owing, I suppose, to the immense number of cater¬ 
pillars which are destroyed by the larvce of a small Ichneumon. Of twelve 
caterpillars which I fed this year only one changed into a chrysalis; all the 
others were destroyed by these larvse, which, when full grown, make their way 
through the body of the caterpillar, and spin for themselves beautiful little yellow 
cocoons. The caterpillar above mentioned is the only one that changed into a 
chrysalis after having fastened the band for the suspension of the future pupa, 
fell to the bottom of the box, and there changed itself into a chrysalis. The last 
time I saw this Butterfly this season was on the 18th of October. 
Pontia rapce and P. napi , with varieties of both, common. 
Vanessa urticce .—I saw it for the first time this year on the 2nd of May; last 
year I noticed a single specimen as early as the 18th of March, another on the 
4th of April, and several on the 15th of April, after which time it was abundant; 
this year it was not seen in any abundance till the 2nd week of May. The last 
specimen I saw this year was on the 19th of October; last year I observed one 
as late as the middle of December. 
Vanessa io. —On the 3rd of October, which was a dull damp day, when out in 
the garden with a spade in my hand, digging up a weed from a bed of China 
Asters then in flower, I was so fortunate as to disturb what I thought to be a 
specimen of V. urticce , which flew off a short distance, and alighted on the 
ground. But what was my surprise and delight when on seizing it by the tho¬ 
rax with my fore-finger and thumb—which caused its wings to open a little—I 
found it was what our earliest British entomologists named “ omnium regina” 
Vanessa Io. It has been stated that this beautiful insect-—of which my speci- 
