IQQ [September, 



RE-OCCUERENCE OF BARIS SCOLOPACEA, Germ., IN THE 

 ISLE OP SHEPPEY. 



BT JAMES J. WALKER, E.N., F.L.S. 



It is always a great pleasure to recover an insect wliich has for 

 many years been given up for lost, especially when the insect in question 

 is so local and rare a species as Baris scolopacea. This weevil, first 

 taken by my friend Mr. G. C. Champion iri the Isle of Sheppey in 

 June, 1870 (Eut. Mo. Mag., vol. vii, p. 107), and afterwards found by 

 us in some numbers in 1872 and the three succeeding years (Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., vol. ix, p. 117), seems to have disappeared altogether from its 

 very restricted locality near Queenborough since 1876, and repeated 

 visits to the spot by both of us at all seasons of the year have failed 

 to produce a single additional specimen. On the 3rd of this month I 

 walked out to Shellness, at the eastern end of the Isle of Sheppey, a 

 locality I had never before visited, and found there a considerable 

 extent of salt-marsh of most promising appearance, with a luxuriant 

 growth of the usucil littoral plants, among which Atriplex portulacoides 

 was especially abundant. After sweeping here for some little time, 

 and finding such beetles as Apion limonii (in plenty on Statice limonium), 

 Polifdi'osiis clirysomela, Doliclwsoma lineare, &c., a small weevil turned 

 up in the net, which I recognised at once as the long lost Baris scolo- 

 pacea. It was late in the afternoon, and I was nearly twelve miles 

 from home, but this capture induced me to set to work in earnest, and 

 in about an hour I had the satisfaction of securing a fine series of the 

 Baris. It came exclusively o:ff the Atriplex portulacoides, and was 

 apparently almost confined to one spot, about fifty yards square. The 

 specimens taken on this occasion are nearly all fine and fresh, but even 

 smaller than the original ones, ranging from the size of Mecinus circu- 

 latus down to that of Miccotrogus picirostris. Shellness is at least 

 ten miles distant, in a direct line, from the locality where Baris 

 scolopacea was formerly found, and is nearly opposite Whitstable, on 

 the coast of Kent. 



23, Ranelagh Road, Sheerness : 

 August 8th, 1896. 



THE RECENT ABUNDANCE OP TORTRIX VIRIDANA. 

 Br C. G. BARRETT, F.E.S. 



The devastation caused among oak trees by the larva of Tortrix 

 viridana this summer, though by no means unprecedented, has yet 

 been so far serious as to render it desirable that some record should 



