288 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Entomological Notes, Captures, ^c. 



Argynnis Niohe in Kent. — I should like to make a few- 

 remarks in reference to tiie plan suggested by Mr. Clifford, 

 in the 'Entomologist' for October (Entom. vii, 225), for dissi- 

 pating the doubts, which he says are still entertained by 

 some entomologists, as to the recent capture of Argynnis 

 Niobe in Kent. Mr, Clifford says: — "If the gentlemen who 

 have made acquaintance with Argynnis Niobe will associate 

 with themselves one or two entomologists of known skill in 

 larva-hunting, and, without indicating the precise position of 

 the valley or hollow between Wye and Ash ford to the 

 entomological world generally, arrange to make a careful 

 united search for the larva; of A. Niobe during the spring, we 

 may possibly get a result conclusive enough to satisfy all 

 sceptics." Now it seems to me that if this plan were to be 

 adopted no satisfactory result could possibly be arrived at; 

 for if the larva3 were not found, there would be no proof that 

 they were not there ; and if found, there would be no evidence 

 how they came there. Some three or four years ago, while 

 beating for larvae in the High Woods here, I beat from an 

 oak-tree a very large, handsome larva, that evidently belonged 

 to a species not included among our native Fauna. For a 

 moment I was completely puzzled, but immediately after- 

 wards remembered that Dr. Wallace had been turning out a 

 number of specimens of Bombyx Pernyi ; and the mystery 

 was at once solved. Another collector shortly afterwards 

 beat three larvae of this species, and later in the season 

 several cocoons were found on oak-trees in the same locality. 

 This seems to indicate that finding larvae in a given locality 

 is not in itself a sufficient proof of their British origin. Even 

 if the eggs of Argynnis Niobe could be found laid naturally 

 on the wild heart's-ease in the locality where the captures are 

 reported to have been made, the question of the authenticity 

 of the species would still remain exactly where it is now. 

 Here, the only locality for Melitaea Athalia is being rapidly 

 destroyed; and, fearing this pretty species should disappear 

 from our neighbourhood altogether, 1 employed a man, three 

 or four years ago, to collect all the larvae he could find, and 

 turn them down in another locality, about a dozen miles off, 

 where the insect did not previously occur, but where the 



