Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/359

Rh September, a young entomological friend, son of the Rev. J. Goadby, took two males of Colias Edusa, in a lane close to this town. The capture of the insect in our inland county, in the present year, is very interesting, as an additional fact in support of a quadrennial theory started by Messrs. Jordan and Newman, (Zool. 176). The specimens are of a lighter colour than that usually ascribed to C. Edusa, but in other respects they more resemble that species than its near congener C. Philodice; and they are so beautifully and freshly coloured, as to leave no doubt of their being bred near the spot; thus discountenancing the opinion of sea-shore emigration. What surprises me most is the kind of weather they chose for their winged existence, so cold and winterly had been the preceding week; and that they had not appeared during the more genial weather before that, I am convinced, because I was myself at that time a good deal about the same locality. The autumn altogether has been very prolific in the finer butterflies here. Cynthia Cardui kept us company from early in August till a late period. Fine specimens of Polychloros have been about. 16 was in countless multitudes, and Ehamni, previously of rare occurrence, has been more commonly met with.—Henry Walter Bates; Queen St., Leicester, October 3, 1843.

Note on the occurrence of Colias Edusa in Surrey. I captured one at Fetchamdowns on the 16th of September: on the 17th Mr. E. Doubleday caught two at once with his hat, in a field in Headley lane, where we saw about a dozen more, but had no nets to take them with. Mr. B. Standish has taken two at Camberwell; and a few have been seen and taken at Riddlesdown: but I do not think it has been so common as C. Hyale was last year, at least in the neighbourhood of London.—J.W. Douglas; 6, Grenville Terrace, Coburg Road, Kent Road; September 28, 1843.

Note on the occurrence of Colias Hyale in Kent. Mr. B. Standish took one between Birch and Darenth woods, in August, and I saw one at Headley-lane, on the 17th of September.— Id.

Note on the occurrence of Colias Hyale in Kent and Sussex. I took a specimen of this butterfly in the field facing the Bull inn, a few days back, and I saw another on the 26th of last month, on the banks of the Shoreham and Brighton railway; these are the only two specimens that have come under my observation this year, and I understand very few have been taken. I could not see any in the same lucerne field that I took so many in last year at Arundel.—Samuel Stevens; 38, King St., Covent Garden, September 22, 1843.

Note on the occurrence of Sphinx Convolvuli at Lower Clapton. I captured a fine specimen of Sphinx Convolvuli in my garden, in September, 1842.—R. Wakefield; Lower Clapton, September 5, 1843.

Note on Anthrocera Loti. In 1841 I found the 5-spotted burnet-moth (A. Loti) plentifully at the beginning of June: this year they did not make their appearance till six weeks later, namely, about the middle of July. I refer to the Isle of Wight. In the former year they were hatched on the stems of the mowing grass; and had they been later in arriving at maturity, would have perished in the hay that year. In the present year I did not find them at all about the mowing grass, but on rough ground that never is mowed. Now since the season causes an undoubted variation in the time of their appearance, am I fanciful in asking,—" Did not instinct teach the larva? in the present instance to avoid those places that would be dangerous (which in the year of the early disclosure of the moth, they frequented with impunity), and to seek a spot less hazardous, whereon to undergo their transformation, when the unfavourable character of the season would necessarily delay the appearance of the perfect