NEW BRITISH SPECIES IN 1859. 127 



peas ; probably the parsnip bed at Guernsey bordered a row 

 of peas. 



The specimen captured in Sussex may not be the sole 

 individual which landed, and if any female came over at the 

 same time, she will infallibly be impelled by instinct to 

 deposit her eggs. Peas are no rarity with us, and therefore 

 the necessary food is forthcoming for the larvae. 



Who would, therefore, be surprised should Polyommatus 

 Boetica be common on the southern, coast next summer ? 



We have heard of the occurrence of a specimen of Calli- 

 morpha Hera near Torquay, but the period for its regulated 

 introduction into our list of British species has not yet 

 arrived. 



The re-addition of Acontia Solaris will of course direct 

 attention to the circumstance that we are continually erasing 

 species from our lists, in order in a few years to have the 

 pleasure of adding them again. Indeed, our Annual would 

 have been greatly shorn of its apparent utility, had not a 

 number of species been arbitrarily struck ofl' the British 

 list. 



Catephia Alchymista, taken by Dr. Wallace, in the 

 autumn of 1858, occupies a prominent place on the frontis- 

 piece of our present volume (see fig. 3), but, no doubt, 

 twenty years hence, if it has not again occurred in the in- 

 terval, the leading Lepidopterists of that day will expunge it, 

 from their lists, and serious qualms will then be entertained, 

 whether the insect in question was ever taken in this country 

 at all. 



Those who do not possess specimens of a rarity are ex- 

 ceedingly apt to doubt its occurrence, and possibly we should 

 be more ready to acknowledge the claims of Pier is Dapli- 

 dice as indigenous, did we possess a British specimen. It 



