376 Retrospective Criticism, 



I suspect the insect he means is not M. Dict^nna, but 

 M. Selena, a common species in bogs, and which otherwise 

 is not included in the list. Perhaps Mr. Conway has been 

 misled by the English name, " pearl-bordered likeness," 

 which is, in truth (though that is not his fault), a very un- 

 fortunate one, because it would have been far more applicable 

 to M. Selena, the small pearl-bordered fritillary, an insect so 

 like M. Euphrosyn?, that it is sometimes mistaken for it, 

 though the two are undoubtedly distinct. M. Dictynna has 

 more resemblance with, and is more closely allied to, M. 

 Cinxitf, than to M. Euphrosyn^, and accordingly might more 

 fitly have been called the " Glanville likeness." 



The specimens of Thechz quercus which Mr. Conway 

 finds (p. 227.) " with the upper surface of the primary wings 

 almost entirely of a deep blue" are the females ; those with a 

 brilliant irregular spot of blue on the disk of the wings are 

 the males. Contrary to what is the case with most butter- 

 flies, the females of Thecla que'rcus appear to be the most 

 abundant. Mr. Conway expresses his surprise that Apatunz 

 Fris is not found in his vicinity, which, he says, " is almost 

 entirely overrun with oak." If abundance of oak would 

 insure the presence of this fine insect, we ought to have good 

 store of it in Warwickshire ; but here it is very rare : I never 

 saw more than two or three examples of it alive in this 

 neighbourhood, and these occurred many years ago. A 

 collector at Coventry has a fine pair, a male and female, 

 which he reared from caterpillars, found within a few miles 

 of that city. 



Polyommatus Argiolus, it seems, is only single-brooded in 

 Monmouthshire ; a circumstance which tends rather to add 

 to the probability of an opinion which I ventureoj to throw 

 out in Vol. V. p. 496., that it is perhaps only in the more 

 southern counties that this insect proves double-brooded. 

 The common blue (Polyommatus I'carus, or P. Alexis of 

 Stephens) is omitted in the Monmouthshire catalogue, 

 though it must occur in that county, and is to be found in 

 all parts of the kingdom. Another very common fly, 

 Pamphila Sylvanus, is likewise omitted, unless (as I rather 

 suspect), that insect is intended by " Hesperia comma," 

 (pearl, not) " pale-spotted " skipper, which last is a local 

 species, chiefly found, I believe, in chalk districts. 



I will add, in conclusion, that Mr. Conway, if I mistake 

 not, will derive much amusement and instruction from 

 Wood's Index Entomologicus ; a work, the first number of 

 which has just appeared, and which promises to be of the 

 greatest utility to the British lepidopterist, even in spite of 



