is pale, and there are four indistinct pale dots near the outer angle. Below all the wings black, the markings as above but more distinct, especially the four pale spots of the posterior wings. The anterior margin of these wings wants the pale colour, but has a yellowish dot just within the discoidal cell. Antennæ black glossed with blue, head and thorax fuscous shaded with olive-green, the former with a tuft of brilliant blue scales between the antennæ, the latter glossed with blue at the sides, and marked anteriorly with two white dots. Abdomen above luteous, the two basal segments of a splendid blue, the sides. marked with a row of black dots; below black, all the segments margined with whitish. Expanse of wings, 2 inches 9 lines.

Inhabits Sylhet, in Bengal. In the British Museum.

Het. Edea. P. Ædea, Linn. Syst. Nat. ii. 757; Clerck, Icon. t. 41, fig. 2. Acræa? Edea, Godt. Encyc. Méth. ix. 236, no. 19. This species, which Linnæus described as a Papilio, and which Godart, who had never seen it, thought might be an Acræa, may be at once known from the preceding by the broad whitish or yellow band of the posterior wings, which, commencing on the anterior margin, spreads across the disk so as to occupy more than half the inner and a portion of the outer margin. The space beyond this band is of a most brilliant blue, with four or more white and five jet black spots, the margin itself being narrowly edged with black. The anterior wings also

differ from those of H. Edocla in having two additional white spots near the apex, and the blue gloss around the markings is more distinct. These characters will be seen in the accompanying wood-cut, from a specimen in the British Museum, sent by Mr. Stainsforth from Sylhet.

Het. tricolor, Hope. The British Museum possesses a pair of this species, and I am thus enabled to correct an error in Mr. Hope's figure and in his character of the genus, though for some time I have hesitated as to whether or no I could consider them identical with Mr. Hope's insect, having been assured by Mr. Westwood that the antennæ in that individual were undoubtedly setaccous. This was about a year and a half since, when I first exhibited at the Entomological Society the specimen of H. Edea now in the Museum cabinet, and after pointing out its identity with Clerck's figure, expressed an opinion that it was congeneric with H. tricolor. Since that time, however, Mr. Westwood, probably forgetting the precise words of my remarks, has stated that H. tricolor, Hope, is synonymous with P. Edea, Linn. Although this statement is incorrect, it confirms my opinion of the two insects belonging to the same genus, and leads to the inference that Mr. Westwood has found that the antennæ, as figured in the Linnean Transactions,' are erroneous.

The truth is that the antennæ of this genus offer a structure as singular as any which I know to exist in the nocturnal Lepidoptera. In the male they are strongly bipectinate; in the female they are much longer than in the male, the pectinations, except at the apex, so short as to be hardly observable, but at the apex they are longer and lamelliform, forming when closed a compact club, but evidently capable of being expanded, as in the lamellicorn beetles. On this, however, I have some further remarks, but must defer these to a future time, when I shall point out the tendency to this structure in the genera Chalcosia, Erasmia and Amesia.

Genus.-PAPILIO.

Papilio Turnus, L., and P. Glaucus, L. These insects in reality are but one species, the latter being an obfuscated variety of the former.* This fact was pointed out to me by Mr. D. Dyson, of Manchester, an intelligent young man, originally a weaver at Oldham, whose zeal for Entomology carried him out last year to the United States. To myself the idea had never occurred, but I have only once or twice seen P. Glaucus on the wing, and then soaring above the underwood, which I had only seen P. Turnus occasionally do, and which I imagined to be the constant habit of P. Glaucus, L. In this I have found

* Boisduval perhaps suspected this. He thrice, in his description of P. Glaucus, compares it to Turnus, and adds in a note, "Ce beau Papillon, malgré sa couleur noire, a beaucoup de rapports avec Turnus sous ses premiers états."

from other sources that I was mistaken, and have ascertained the range of P. Glaucus, L., to be more northern than I had believed. The larva and pupa of both as drawn by Abbott are identical. Henceforth the name Glaucus must be dropped. The merit of the discovery belongs not to any scientific naturalist, but to one whose only book has been the best of all books that of Nature.

Genus.-LOBOPHORA.

Lobophora polycommata. There is a misstatement in Mr. Humphreys' 'British Moths,' relative to a specimen of this insect in the British Museum, and which is figured in that work. Mr. Westwood states that this specimen belongs neither to the genus nor the species. Now the correct figure is from the Museum specimen, the incorrect one from Hubner, the error being in copying Hubner's figure, Geom. 89, which is A. Æscularia, by mistake for his fig. 90, which is L. polycommata. Of this fact Mr. Westwood is well aware. reference to the figure was reversed I cannot say.

Why the

EDWARD DOUBLEDAY.

Note on a remarkable Variety of Hipparchia Galathea. At the latter end of last July I captured a very remarkable variety of the common Hipparchia Galathea, in a field on the heights between Dover and Walmer. The specimen is a male, of a clear milky white colour, and has not, on either the upper or under side of its wings, the smallest speck of black. Its thorax, abdomen and palpi are also entirely clothed with white. The varieties of this insect heretofore described appear to have been more than usually suffused with black or dark brown. My specimen so decidedly agrees with Galathea in form, that I have no hesitation in referring it to that species, which was very abundant at the spot. It is in perfectly fine condition.—Thos. Marshall; King William St., City, November 4, 1843.

Note on a singular Variety of the large Cabbage Butterfly. The enclosed sketch is of an unusual variety of a male

Pontia Brassica. It was captured in a garden in Leicester last year, and is now deposited in our local cabinet at the museum of the Philosophical Society. -J. Plant; Leicester, January 17, 1844.

-

Note on the occurrence of Colias Edusa in the Isle of Wight. The following record of my own brief experience of

the periodical appearance of

Variety of the large Cabbage-butterfly.

Colias Edusa may be considered as rather corroborative, than otherwise, of the quad

rennial theory. There is a favourite resort of this insect, where I was informed by a friend that they were plentiful in 1839, about half a mile from my residence. In the following season of 1840, I did not meet with a single specimen. In 1841, though I went almost daily in search of them, about the same locality, and in many other places, during the season, with considerable anxiety and most laudable perseverance, I found only two weather-beaten specimens. In 1842 not a single individual appeared, neither do I believe that it was met with in any part of the kingdom. This year, my vast anxiety to secure some splendid specimens of this charming butterfly, and all my patience and perseverance in the previous years' most fruitless search for it, were destined to receive their full reward. The males first made their appearance with us on the 2nd of September, the females about four days later; and they were abundant when I left the island a week after. They were equally so on the other side the water; a friend of mine captured about thirty specimens near Alverstoke, the last pair so late as October 14, and also saw several times, but did not secure, a remarkable variety, having the ground colour of one of the anterior wings white instead of orange, the other three being of the ordinary hue. I noticed them on my route to Brighton, near Casham, Chichester and Arundel, flying up and down by the side of the road. But by far the largest proportion were in the neighbourhood of Brighton. Between that place and Rottingdeane especially, they were in great profusion, and had I been disposed, I could have taken above a hundred with the greatest ease. They were by far the commonest butterfly of that season of the year, appearing even on the beach, and in front of the houses on the Marine Parade. There were a few of the pale variety with them. J. F. Dawson; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, December, 1843.

Note on Colias Edusa, var. Helice. Mr. Jordan (Zool. 396), speaking of the beautiful white variety of the female Colias Edusa (sometimes raised to the rank of a species by the name of C. Helice), asks whether "it ever occurs in the male insect?" I believe I may safely reply that it never does. And this, I may observe, affords a strong argument in addition to others, that C. Helice is a variety only, not a species; since in most butterflies the females are far less abundant than the males. As far as my

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own experience goes, I should say in the particular instance of C. Edusa, that the males are as ten or twelve to one female, or, perhaps, even in still greater proportion. The only time I ever had the pleasure of seeing C. Helice alive and capturing it, I had all but demonstration of its identity with Edusa, as a union was about to take place with a male of that species, had it not been for my interference, (Mag. Nat. Hist. v. 332.) It is stated in Humphreys' British Butterflies,' under the article C. Helice, that no corresponding variety of the male has yet been observed." Mr. Jordan records the capture of C. Edusa on the 4th of November, which is certainly very late for its appearance; and from this circumstance he argues with much probability, that “if it could remain unscathed" through such an October as that of 1843, "it appears to prove that the insect may sometimes hybernate." I have always understood, though unable to state exactly on what authority, that the species does hibernate and re-appear in the early spring. Haworth, an accurate observer in such matters, says in his 'Lepidoptera Britannica," ""Femina [Colias Edusa] vivit per hyemem, et ova tempore vernali ponit." But whether this remark is the result of his own experience, or borrowed from other and perhaps continental authors, does not appear. The only way, as it seems to me, of escaping the conclusion at which Mr. Jordan arrives, is by supposing that his example captured November 4th, "in very good condition," was a latebred specimen, which had come from the chrysalis after the cold weather of October. W. T. Bree; Allesley Rectory, January, 1844.

Note on rearing the Death's Head Moth. Having observed in your January number (Zool. 398), an enquiry concerning the larvæ of Acherontia Atropos, I am induced, from having successfully reared a fine specimen of that species from the larva state, to send you a short account of my mode of treating it. I obtained the caterpillar in September, 1840, and put it into a flower-pot three parts filled with earth, and covered it with gauze, feeding it with leaves of the potato. In this state I kept it for three days, taking care to keep the earth sufficiently moist to enable it to bury itself with ease. On the fourth day it retired under the earth, and remained there until the middle of January, when I took the chrysalis out of the earth and put it into a box filled with bran. I found it near the bottom of the flower-pot, encased in a sort of cocoon of earth; this I took care not entirely to destroy, but merely broke away enough to allow the moth room to come forth. It remained in the bran until the 23rd of the following June, when it came forth a beautiful and perfect insect. I was first induced to try the experiment of removing the pupa from the earth into bran, in consequence of having failed in rearing several larvæ of those species which undergo their transformations under ground; and as I could only attribute this failure to the earth becoming too hard for them to extricate themselves, I determined to assist them by removing them in the winter into bran: and since I have pursued this plan, I have scarcely failed in one instance.-H. B. Rashleigh; Horton Kirby, Kent, January 15, 1844.

Note on Formica rufa. Formica rufa, "the fallow ant" of Huber, occurs in vast abundance at Buddon-wood, on the skirts of Charnwood-forest. The tract of ground called Buddon-wood, consists of an abruptly rising hill of sienite, separated from the Cambrian rocks of the forest on the N.W. by the marls of new red sandstone, and bordered on the S.E. by the lias of Barrow. The hill is clothed with oak, pine and shrubs, in many places huge masses of rock protrude, or lie scattered, as if a tremendous wall had been thrown down by a giant hand. The roots of the oak wrap and bind around these masses, as if to hold them on the steep ascent. Under the projection of these rocks, and also the large protruding roots of the oak, the nests of these ants are generally constructed, the ant taking advantage of the overhanging rock and root to make a solid covering to the nest. When the nest is formed in these situations, it has invariably a broad surface in front, composed of a quantity of small bits of sticks, lichens and leaves, mingled with the earth which accumulates around it, and varying in depth from two to six inches, forming the covering to the various passages underneath. In other places the nest is formed in a dry spot where a tree has been cut down, consisting of the same heterogeneous materials, but mingled with a greater quantity of earth; rising in shape like a depressed cone, with a basal circumference of two yards or more. Some of these conical nests which I have tried to demolish to procure some larvæ, I found to vary from two to three and a half feet deep, containing several bushels of materials; in one I inserted my walking-stick to the tip before I met with resistance, and when withdrawn it was covered in several places with crushed larvæ. What few plants are found in the immediate vicinity of the nests are stunted and withered, but in most cases the ground is entirely bare for several yards round the nests; the ants either preferring such situations at the commencement of the young colony, or afterwards clearing them in the formation of their nests. The number of these nests in this locality is very great; for with the exception of the lower part of the wood, on the N.W. side, where a large brook borders it, which, by overflowing, keeps it continually damp, they cover the whole hill: and from sunrise till an hour after sunset, armies of the population traverse every part of their dominion, the wood, seizing with relentless jaws every