88 CORRESPONDENCE. 



Notice of the Discovery of a New Insect, Acosmeiia Morrisii, — Dale's MSS. 



To the Editor of the Naturalist, 



Sir, — I have great pleasure in forwarding for your pages a description of a 

 species of Acosmetia, which I believe to be entirely new to entomologists. My 

 kind friend, Mr. Dale, has been so good as to name it after me, as the discoverer 

 of the insect. The following is the general description : — pale straw colour, ap- 

 proaching to silvery white, the upper (part of the) wings very faintly streaked 

 with narrow brown lines, diverging (from an obscure black dot ?) towards the 

 margin, which is of the same colour with the rest of the wings, from which they 

 are hardly distinguishable ; the, wings underneath ^ are divided transversely by a 

 faint waved brown line, and the margins clouded with the same colour. The 

 insect is an inch and half a line in width from tip to tip, and is not thick bodied, 

 though belonging rather to that class than to the thin-bodied. The' first speci- 

 mens I took were met with several years ago, near Charmouth, Dorsetshire, be- 

 yond a lime-kiln on the cliff on the east side of the little river Char. I believe 

 individuals may be taken there every year, though they certainly are not com- 

 mon. They rise up from the grass, and fly well and straight, on being disturbed 

 in the day-time, somewhat after the manner of the Plusia gamma (when not 

 flying voluntarily), and are rather difficult to capture. They seem to be among 

 the long grass, to which they assimilate in colour. I do not remember the 

 exact time "6f their appearance, but it is about the middle of summer, and they 

 remain " out " a considerable time. Mr. Dale has also taken specimens at the 

 same locality. Francis Orpen Morris. 



April 4, 1837. 



CHAPTER OF CRITICISM. 



To the Editor of the Naturalist. 

 Sir, — When your readers hear that I am about to place before you a few hints 

 on the conducting of a periodical, they may well marvel at my boldness in 

 addressing them to the Commander-in-Chief of two excellent Journals — the one 

 quarterly, the other monthly — who must of course possess no small experience in 

 such matters. Still, though I cannot boast of being at the helm of even a weekly 

 magazine, yet a subaltern may often be enabled to throw out suggestions at 

 least worthy the consideration of his officer ; and with this view I propose to 

 you, Mr. Editor, one or two alterations and additions which may perhaps tend to 

 improve the character of the Naturalist. First, then, I would recommend the 

 introduction of a chapter dedicated to what Loudon, in the better days of the 



