1896.] 183 



Discovery of the male of Prestwiohia aquatica, Lubbock. — You will.be pleased 

 to hear that I have been fortunate in discovering the male Prestwichia aquatica, 

 Lubbock. It is apterous, three quarters of a millimetre long, resembling in colour 

 and appearance a poor starved flea, and as active when on the surface of the water, 

 which it has some difficulty in entering, though when one leg is through the film it 

 appears to lever itself down and swims easily, using its second legs principally. — 

 F. Enock, 21, Manor Gardens, Holloway : July, 1896. 



£!upoecilia gilvicomana, Z., as a British Insect. — In Ent. Mo. Mag., Ser. 2, 

 vol. vii, pp. 19-20, Mr. R. McLachlan draws attention to the omission of Hadena 

 peregriiia from Mr. E. Meyrick's recently published " Handbook of British 

 Lejiidoptera." Another omission that calls for remark is that of Eupoecilia 

 gilvicomana, and as its histoi'y as a British insect does not seem to be generally 

 known, it may be useful to recall the facts. In Entom., xii, pp. 205-6, the late 

 Mr. F. 0. Standish, writing on July 19th, 1879, from Cheltenham, where he was 

 living, recorded the recent capture by himself of a series of " Argyrolepia 

 Schreihersiana " flying over mixed herbage and grass : the locality is not actually 

 named, but it is obvious that it was close to Cheltenham, for he says, "... the 

 daily rains have made it most difficult to procure fine specimens." On p. 263 of 

 the same volume of "The Entomologist," Mr. E. G. Meek, writing on Oct. 9th, 

 1879, states that he had recently received from Mr. Standish some of his supposed 

 A. Schreibersiana, to which he had alluded in his published note {loc. cit.), but 

 they proved to be not that species, but had been identified by Dr. Staudinger as 

 Eupoecilia gilvicomana, Z. {= flaviscapulana, H.-S.), which insect is therefore 

 added to the British List by Mr. Meek. It seems clear that Standish only took the 

 species in the single season of 1879, for his note reads as though he had never 

 seen it previously, and he died on April 12th, 1880, but he must have found it 

 rather plentiful, for all the specimens, a few dozens in number, that I have ever seen 

 in British collections were certainly taken and set by him, and he is well known to 

 have been absolutely trustworthy. No one else seems to have yet met with it in 

 Britain, but it probably still holds its own at Cheltenham, unless the spot happens to 

 have been built over. At the recent sale of the Standish collection of Tortrices, I 

 noticed with much interest that the series of E. gilvicomana, though considerably 

 reduced by Mr. Meek while the collection was his property, was still standing with 

 the name " Schreibersiana " below it, exactly as Mr. Standish himself had placed it 

 in his ignorance of the real identity of his captures. The larva has been recorded 

 as feeding on the continent on Chenopodium, Prenanthes muralis, P. purpurea and 

 also on flowers of Solidago virgaurea, but I expect this last record really refers to 

 the larva of its ally, E. curvistrigana.—EvsTACE U. Bankes, The Rectory, Corfe 

 Castle : June 6th, 1896. 



Tinea vinculella, S.-S., in the Isle of Purbeck.— This pretty little species 

 which was added to the British List by Mr. Nelson M. Richardson, in Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., Ser. 2, vi, pp. 61-65 (1895), has, as regards Britain, hitherto only been 

 recorded from the Isle of Portland; it is therefore satisfactory to be able to 



