76 [April, 



O. melanocephalus, Gmel., may be mentioned. The year 1900 was 

 particularly good for the Antliophila, and the following I think have 

 not been recorded by me before. Prosopis cornuta, Sm , dilatata, 

 Kirby, hyalinata, Sm., confusa, Nyl., and brevicornis, Nyl., SpJiecodes 

 rubicundus, V. Hag., pilifrons. Thorns., puncticeps. Thorns., Halictus 

 pauxillus, Schk., Andrena anqustior, Kirby, fucata, Sm., coitana, 

 Kirby, fulvago, Chr. , labial is, Kirby, niveata, Friese, and pi'oxima, Kirby, 

 Megachile Wilhu/libiella, Kirby, and versicolor, Sm., Chelostoma flori- 

 somne, L., Osmia fuhniientris, Panz., leucomelana, Kirby, Bombus Latrei- 

 llellns, Kirby, Nomada fucata, Panz., Ccelioxys rufescens, Lep., and 

 acuminata, Nyl. Mr. Norton has taken Andrena ferox, Smith, ? , at 

 Wyehling, this is practically the same locality whence a £ was 

 recorded by me in 189G. T have looked in vain ever since for the ? . 

 It seems to me to occur at a time when the bees get their honey from 

 trees, such as sycamore and chestnut, and accordingly to be very 

 difficult to take. I believe, however, that hawthorn is the recorded 

 food. 



In concluding I may mention that I had three very successful 

 Saturdays in August at St. Margaret's Bay, and then, thanks to Mr. 

 F. W. Sladen, captured the three British Cilissce and several other 

 specialities. Apion limonii, Kirby, occurred at the roots of its food 

 plant beneath the cliff, and insects generally were more abundant 

 than here. 



Huntingfield, Faversham, Kent : 

 January 12th, 1902. 



HISTORICAL NOTES ON LYC.FNA ACIS IN BRITAIN. 

 BY C. W. DALE, F.E.S. 



This is the rarest and most valuable of our native butterflies, 

 next to Chrysophanus dispar. Like it, it is an extinct British species, 

 as none have been taken in our island for over twenty years, and 

 genuine British specimens are now few and far between. 



The first account we have of its occurrence is in Ray's Historia 

 Insectorum, 1710, as follows: — " Ala> supina? ad exortuin cceleru- 

 lescunt ; inferius e fusco albicant. Ocelli sex septemve in singulis 

 alis. A. D. Dale, capta nobisque ostensa est." 



Both Lewiu, in 1795, and Haworth, in 1803, record it as being a 

 very rare British species. But in 1833 the Rev. W. T. Bree wrote, 

 " Acts was at one time considered to be an insect of very great 

 rarity. In 1803 Haworth spoke of it as the rarest, perhaps, of our 



