256 ' [November, 



thompsoni from rohsoni, i.e., the type of robsoni has the indistinct median transverse 

 band, indistinct orbicular and reniform, white fringes, the three white spots at 

 apical angle, and the greyish scallops. The description of the hind-wings, thorax, 

 abdomen and legs, which Mr. Arkle applies to thompsoni, agree absolutely with the 

 type of rohsoni. The slight fading of thirteen years brings out the rather darker 

 band and paler margin mentioned by Mr. Arkle more distinctly than when the 

 insects were fresh, and, with the exception of the pale fringes, all the other points 

 are noted in British Noctiiw, &c. The failure to note the fringes as pale in British 

 Noctupe, &c., iii, p. fi9, can be the only excuse for rcTiaming robsoni, which, exliibited 

 and named at the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society on October 12th, 

 1901, when I believe Mr. Arkle was an active Member of the Society, ought cer- 

 tainly to have been saved from such a fate. It is of course well known that Messrs. 

 Collins and Acton of Warrington (not Mr. Thompson) worked up the aberration, 

 and made it known to science. I should like to raise a protest too against Mr. 

 Arkle's haphazard statement that he has it " on good authority that the variety 

 robsoni occurs in at least three districts of Yorkshire," cither the individual who 

 knows should give the information and thus make it authoritative, or it should be 

 left alone. OfPhand statements like this may do harm to our knowledge of geo- 

 graphical distribution. " Some one told me that somebody said, &c.," is not exactly 

 what we want in science.— J. W. Tutt, 110, Westcombe Park, S.E. : Oct. \st, 1904. 



CoUas ill 1904. — On August 8th I saw, from the top of a tram-car, the first 

 Colias edusa of the year, flying wildly round a plane tree in St. Giles's, one of the 

 busiest tlioroughfares in Oxford. On the 15th I went to Slieerness, and next 

 morning, in a walk on the cliffs, saw six specimens of C. edusa, mostly in good 

 condition. These raised hopes of at least a fairly good " edusa year;" but I saw 

 only one more specimen in the three weeks I spent in the Isle of Sheppey, although 

 the weather was fine, and I was out every day. C. hyale was not observed cither 

 by me or any of the local coUecters, up to my departure on September 5th.— J. J. 

 Walker, " Aorangi," Lonsdale Road, Summertown, Oxford : October, 1904. 



Deilephila lineata at Hastings. — A nice fresh specimen of this species was 

 taken on a lamp post in the Bohemia Road, Hastings, on May 20th last. It is now 

 in the possession of Mr. Ruskin Butterfield, who kindly brought it for my inspec- 

 tion. I have just heard that a specimen was taken at Felixstowe on September 1st 

 by Mr. G. R. Hope, Havering Grange, Romford. — E. N. Bi.oomfieli>, Guestling 

 Rectory : October \Wi, 1904. 



CatocaJa fraxini, L., in Suffolk. — I have just heard that my young nephew, 

 Walter Boyd, took a fine specimen of C. fraxini in 1901, at rest on his father's 

 house, Stronsay, Kirklcy Cliff, Lowestoft. — W. C. Boyd, The Grange, Waltham 

 Cross : September \Qth, 1904. 



Bledius femoralis, Oyll., and other species of the genus in Surrey. — The 

 record of the capture of Bledius femoralis in Berkshire in the last number of this 

 Magazine has induced me to re-examine the numerous specimens standing in my 



