251 



NOTES AND OBSEBVATIONS. 



The Entomology of Northamptonshire. — Referring to Mr. Claude 

 Morley's interesting contribution to the Entomology of Northampton- 

 shire in your current issue (ante, p. 222), he remarks that " Apatura 

 iris was said to occur at both Helpston Heath and Barnwell Wold, but 

 I never saw it, nor do I know of authentic records." I may say that, 

 when collecting Lepidoptera in Barnwell Wold in the year 1875, I took 

 a specimen of A. iris there on July 18th; it was the first I had ever 

 taken, and even now, after the long lapse of years, I can recall how 

 delighted I was at my good fortune ; the insect, a fine male, is still in 

 my collection. I never succeeded in taking A. iris again in Barnwell 

 Wold, but saw it there subsequently on several occasions, and also at 

 Ashton Wold, a few miles away in the same county. 



In the years 1872, 1873, and 1875 I made periodical visits to 

 Barnwell Wold, and amongst the butterflies taken, which are not of 

 universal distribution, were — Thecla pruni, larvas in May, on black- 

 thorn, not uncommon. T. betularia, larvas in June, on blackthorn, 

 plentiful. Nemeobius lucina, plentiful in one corner of the wold, end 

 of May and beginning of June. Carter ocephalus palcemon (paniscus), 

 plentiful, May and June. Argynnis aglaia, plentiful on rough fields 

 near the wold, July. Melanargia galatea swarmed in July, both in the 

 wold and along the roadsides in the surrounding district. Vanessa 

 c-album, the only specimen I have seen alive of this insect I captured 

 in Ashton Wold, Northants, in August, 1872. 



My captures of Heterocera were of course numerous, and, as my 

 entomological diary for the years mentioned is still in existence, 

 I should be pleased to give any entomologist who may take in hand 

 a Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Northamptonshire a full list of the 

 species taken by myself in the county during the period mentioned. 



In conclusion, I should like to point out that the name Barnwell 

 Wold is really a misnomer, as there is no wold there. Barnwell Wold 

 is, or was when I knew it, a fair-sized wood with a few rough fields 

 near ; the term wold is still used, no doubt from the fact that in 

 olden times there were miles of open wolds (rough uncultivated 

 uplands) in this part of Northants ; these have long since disappeared 

 before the march of agriculture, and with them has gone, alas ! hycana 

 arion (once plentiful), Hesperia comma, and doubtless many others. 

 " Sic transit." — E. Harold Conquest ; 58, Hatherley Boad, Waltham- 

 stow, September, 1899. 



Coleoptera of Reigate and its Vicinity. — The Holmesdale 

 Natural History Club, Reigate, have recently published the third 

 part (Staphylinidae) of the List of Coleoptera of Reigate, compiled 

 by Mr. John Linnell. The first part of this list was issued in 1861, 

 and the second part in 1867. Delay in the production of the present 

 instalment, which — with few exceptions — refers to captures by local 

 collectors between the years 1853 and 1870, is stated to have been due 

 to various causes, but in some measure to the unsettled state of 

 nomenclature and arrangement previous to the publication of Fowler's 

 ' Coleoptera of the British Islands ' and ' The Catalogue of British 

 Coleoptera ' by Sharp and Fowler. Close on five hundred and fifty 



