CURRENT NOTES. 273 



ance with entomological literature to be limited. It would be easy to 

 put one's hand on half-a-dozen references to the fact, e.;/., Hewett, Knt. 

 Record, ii., p. 138 ; Farren, loe. rit., p. 202 ; Farren, up. (it., iii., p. 171 ; 

 Tutt, Practical Hintn fur the Field Lcjiiduptcrist, ii., p. 28, occur to us 

 off hand. 



Mr. Denis Turner {Kntum., p. 246) records, among other species, 

 the capture of ( 'uownt/nipha ip/iis at Yal Andre, in Brittany. He 

 considers " the colouring of the underside of this species, simple as 

 it is, one of the beauties of the insect world," and adds, " Horace's 

 simplex munditiis .... seems to fit the butterfly exactly." 

 i'oeuuni/niji/ia ipkiti is a most unlikely species to occur in Brittany. 

 It may, of course, have occurred there, but we suspect not, and 

 if this species be vrrongly recorded others may be, and so the whole 

 question of geographical distribution is stultified by the publication 

 of erroneous facts which might be verified in every picture book 

 of European butterflies. Such records should be submitted to a 

 competent authority before publication. 



Mr. Houghton verifies {Kut. Mu. Mai/., p. 219) several points already 

 noted by continental lepidopterists, but not before observed in this 

 country, in the life-history of the Gelechiid, Itcciirvaria nanella, the 

 larviTp of which, in August and September, 1902, he found mining the 

 leaves of apricots, and which they left in middle October to form 

 silken hibernacula in crevices, pieces of cloth, axils of the buds, etc., 

 and in which they remained as larva;' all the winter, leaving these in 

 late February to bore into the buds, binding the buds with silk, and 

 clearing out the contents of the bud. At the end of May the bud is 

 lined Avith silk, and pupation usually takes place within. On the 

 emergence of the imago, which takes place principally during the first 

 fortnight of July, the pupa-case does not protrude from the puparium. 

 The larvie swarm at Worksop on apricots and peaches, and 

 also aftect cherry and plum, but have not been noticed there on apple 

 and pear, with which the species has hitherto been associated. Wing 

 connected it with pear, Douglas with apple, whilst the German 

 entomologists have long since known also its partiality for stone- 

 fruit trees. The latter, however, usually state that the larvif injure 

 the shoots as well as the buds, but this Mr. Houghton does not find 

 to be the case. 



Dr. D. Sharp {loc. cit., p. 221) adds Pacliii<iastcr )iii)iiitissi)iii(>i, 

 Zett., to the list of British Stratiomyid diptera on the strength of the 

 capture of one specimen at Wells in July, 1902. He also notes the 

 capture this summer in the New Forest of a large I'acltjuiaxter, which 

 he makes out to be P. tarsalia, Zett., but is not altogether satisfied 

 with the determination. 



Mr. Cottam records (luc. cit.) the capture of AjihcHa anicntana in 

 July, 1902, at Dilham in Norfolk. This is, even on the Continent, 

 we believe, so completely confined to habitats of moderate altitude or 

 latitude that confirmation appears to be advisable. 



]\Ir. Charles Capper writes us of the capture of a single specimen 

 of Ih'initJtca fuiihrialis — a species so closely allied to //. strit/ata that 

 we believe we have once or twice recorded (c.//., antea, xiv., 227) its 

 capture on the Continent as that of the latter species, with remarks 

 on its unusual habitat — at Beachy Head, on August 7th, 1903. The 

 locality appears to us to savour much more of that of the former 



