108 [April, 



Newspaper Entomology.— T\\e following is a cutting from the Spalding Free 

 Press of March 3rd, 1891 : — 



" Remarkable discover// of a Jive hutterfly, 3000 ypars o!d. — ^fr. of Crow- 

 land, believes he has discovered a peacock butterfly, at least 300t> years old. Tt came 

 about in this way. Beneath a layer of gravel at Crowland, some 20 f.-ct in thickness, 

 was found a peat-bed, which at a moderate calculation would date back to 1500 B.C. 



Mr. was desirous of seeing the vegetable formation in tliis bed, and for this 



purpose cut out a brick of the peat. He then broke it open, and immediately a 

 butterfly flew out. He captured it, and it lived in his establishment for about a 

 fortnight afterwards. It is supposed that the butterfly was in the peat at the time 

 the gravels were brought down, and thus sealed the bed. When the gravel was 

 removed, the air penetrated the peat, and the process of incubation was set up ; the 

 breaking of the cake of peat admitting more air, promoted the final development of 

 the butterfly, and it flew out. An indentation in the peat coincides with the 

 existence of a chrysalis there, but the shell is lost. The peat and butterfly were 

 exhibited before the Peterborough Natural History Society on Tuesday evening." 



Coleoptera at Church Stretton. — In September last Dr. Horner and I spent a 

 fortnight at Church Stretton, in Shropshire, with the object of working up the 

 Coleoptera of that interesting locality. We were favoured with remarkably good 

 weather, were able to devote the greater part of every day to collecting, and were 

 rewarded with an amount of success beyond our expectations. To myself the dis- 

 trict was not in any way strange, but to Dr. Horner all was quite new, and there 

 could be no doubt about his thorough appreciation both of the beautiful scenery 

 and of the entomological results of our expedition. 



An entomologist visiting Church Stretton for the first time is at once impressed 

 with its evidently favourable aspect for his special pursuit — its sub-mountainous 

 surroundings, the high moorlands of the Longmynd on the west, the well-wooded 

 hills of Helnieth, Eagleth, Haslar, Cardington, and Cacr Caradoc, on the east, the 

 delightful valleys, and the nuitierous streamlets whieh, flowing iVom the higher 

 ground, feed the rivers Onny and Teme towards Ludlow. 



The late Rev. W. Hope made this district famous in entomological annals by 

 his records of remarkable captures at Netley, in this neighbourhood — a locality 

 which is frequently confounded by entomologists ot the present day with Netley 

 near Southampton. A pretty full list of his discoveries could be com} ilcd from 

 Stephen's Manual of British Coleoptera, a still interesting (if obsolete) work, from 

 reading which I first conceived an idea of the value and importance of the Church 

 Stretton district as a field for entomological exploration ; and although I have not 

 found there all the species Mr. Hope discovered, a great many that seemed to have 

 eluded him have rewarded my researches. 



In my Catalogue of Midland Coleoptera, to be published shortly in the Trans- 

 actions of the Birmingham Entomological Society, all the known Church Stretton 

 species will be duly enumerated ; but on the present occasion I purpose specifying 

 only the rarer or more interesting of those captured during our recent visit. 



In moss, on the margins of the hill-streams, and in waterfalls, we found 

 Chatarthria seminnlum, Homalota eremita, H. curtipennis, H. decipiens, Ggmnusa 



