6 
tailed and suffused forms, due, no doubt, to the heat. Of the 123 
specimens of this year’s capture that I exhibit to night the tailed forms 
number 24, counting only those with pronounced tails—there are 
several others in the typical series with more or less developed tails— 
and one might say that the whole of the August specimens show some 
trace of tails. These specimens are all among the 97 from Missenden 
taken during the hottest part of August; the September specimens are 
less remarkable. As to suffusion there is one slightly suffused example 
among the September captures and 23 among the August captures, of 
which 20 are various forms of ab. initia, Tutt, the first degree in 
suffusion, and three more strongly suffused = ab. siift'iisa, Tutt. Ab. 
dens, which is “sufuna with tails,” I did not get, though my suffusa 
are certainly well on the way to it. 
This gives one-fifth of my August captures tailed and about one- 
fifth suffused (about one-sixth of the year’s captures.) Eight specimens 
exhibited, about one-twelveth of the August captures, are both tailed 
and suffused. Of course these figures do not include the many 
hundreds of specimens which I overhauled and did not keep. 
Last year, 1910, was a late season and not at all hot, and my series 
for that year shows no tailed or suffused forms and the same applies 
to my 1909 specimens, but I did not begin collecting ;phlaeas seriously 
until about the middle of August in that year, so these are not so 
representative. 
The next peculiarit} 7 I should like to call attention to is the ab. 
caeruleopunct-ata, Syd. with a row of blue spots on the margin of the 
hindwings. In 1909 I found this form very common in a moist 
meadow in South Wales, though not so common in the higher and 
drier districts. I exhibit two specimens from this locality, but have 
since got rid of the majority of them. In 1910 I found it again quite 
common in a damp field at Westerham and exhibit nine specimens 
from there. At Missenden this summer, among a very great number 
examined I found only six specimens and of these only two have the 
spots at all well developed. There are also two among the Ranmore 
specimens of the fourth brood. This summer, of course, was very 
dry, and my specimens all came from high and dry localities, and on 
these facts I had formulated a very nice little theory as to the cause 
of the presence of these blue spots, but I believe the experience of 
others is different, and that some have taken it very freely this year in 
dry situations. This shows the fallacy of generalising from one’s own 
experience. 
I should also like to call attention to the heavy spotting of this year’s 
specimens (the Missenden ones particularly) as compared with those 
of 1909 and 1910. Of the distinctly large spotted form named by 
Tutt, ab. magnipuncta, I had previously two from Gower only. This 
year I have one from Ranmore (fourth brood), and no less than six 
from Missenden, two of these being well on the way to the streaked 
form, and including one male, which is more rarely large-spotted than 
the female. 
The small-spotted forms on the other hand have been scarce this 
year. I exhibit two specimens in which one or two spots are reduced 
in size, but these do not compare for a moment with the two specimens 
xxii.-xxiii. 
