THE LATE WILLIAM LENNON 135 



in the same field, the late Rev. W. Little, of Kirkpatrick- 

 Juxta, and others who are yet with us, we now know the 

 beetle-fauna of the south-west of Scotland as well as any 

 similar area in Great Britain. It fell to his lot to discover 

 some half-dozen new beetles, some new to science, others 

 new to Britain ; but all of these were added to the lists in 

 the name of other coleopterists, to whom Mr. Lennon, in the 

 most unselfish way, handed them over. It is within our know- 

 ledge that in the case of some of the species Mr. Lennon's 

 name was never even mentioned ! One of his discoveries 

 was Apion cerdo, a little weevil found on purple vetch on the 

 railway banks below Collin. Another was a water-beetle 

 Hydroporus obsoletns found in the flood refuse at Kelton 

 after summer freshets. 



Although Mr. Lennon's special hobby was beetles, yet 

 he found time to devote odd days to other departments. A 

 very rare, and at the time almost unique, capture of his was 

 a specimen of Eromene ocellca, a crambite moth which came 

 to his net in a rather curious manner. Passing a window in 

 the Crichton Institution one night in September 1865, very 

 late, he saw the moth on the outside of the glass, having 

 probably been attracted by the light inside. Mr. Lennon 

 tried to open the window, and found it was fixed. But he 

 saw the moth was a rarity, and so without any further 

 hesitation he at once broke the window with his fist and 

 secured the insect ! He used to relate with glee that the 

 authorities made him pay the damage, but he was more than 

 pleased to do so. A capture of Mr. Lennon's that led to 

 some little controversy was the finding of what might have 

 turned out to be a new British butterfly. This was in June 

 of 1868, and the butterfly was Mclitea didyma. One speci- 

 men only was found, but as its distinctness from other 

 butterflies taken on the same day was not noticed till a 

 considerable time afterwards, the new species has never been 

 added to the list. At the same time, whether or not there 



