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THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
English climate of late autumn and winter. Mucking, in S.
Essex, seems to have been a fruitful source for Mr. Mera, as
among other species to be described later, we find a series of
seventeen Pale Clouded Yellows (C. hyale) from that locality
in August, 1900. This is another immigrant which in certain
years successfully raises a comparatively large colony in this
country. Coming to the Fritillaries, we find a specimen with
a tendency towards albinism among the Dark Green (A. aglaia),
and two good specimens of the Queen of Spain (A. latona), one
from the collection of the late W. M. Cole. This extemely rare
butterfly in this country, another immigrant, like the Bath
White, has only been seen or taken about twenty times in the
last forty or fifty years. There are four good aberrations of
the Pearl Bordered Fritillary (A. euphrosyne), some heavily
marked with black, and including one figured in South's
''Butterflies." Included among the Brown Hairstreaks (Z.
betulae) are nine specimens bred from Epping Forest in 1894.
This in all probability has now disappeared from the "Forest,"
and these must be some of the last reared. There are two Large
Coppers (C. dispar), unfortunately not in very good condition;
these are from the collection of G. O. Day of Knutsford. A long
series of the Large Blue (L. arion) was collected by Mr. Mera him-
self in Cornwall, one of the very few remaining districts where
this fine insect still occurs. A remarkable variety of the
Common Blue (L. icarus) is devoid of spots on the underside,
except the four discal ones, and has wings rayed with white;
this is labelled "Felixstowe." The Blues as a group are noted
for the variations they exhibit, and there are several striking
aberrations among the Adonis and Chalk Hill Blues (L. bellargus
and L. coridon). The Mazarine Blue (L. semiargus) is represented
by two authentic Welsh specimens; this butterfly has been
almost entirely extinct in this country for the last fifty years.
This completes my notes on the butterflies, and we now
come to the moths. Among the Hawk-moths there are five
Essex Death's Heads (A. atropos). These occasionally turn up
in the county; one I found near Braintree last October. There
are also some Small Elephant Hawks (C. porcellus) from Forest
Gate and Mucking. I doubt whether it occurs in the former
locality now, though the food-plants, the two Bedstraws (Galium
verum, G. mollugo) are widely distributed. There is a series of