NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 17 



any species of Rhammis is native in Ireland, wliile it is abundantly and 

 widely spread over the adjoining territories of Galwayand Connemara, 

 together with the butterfly in question, and reaches southward through 

 Clare to Kerry, northward to Longford and Cavan, where I saw a fine 

 tree of IL cathartii'm myself this summer on the shore of L, Oughter. 

 A reference to ' Cybele Hibernica,' which I have not at hand to refer 

 to, will reveal, doubtless, a wider distribution. But it is more 

 bewildering to read his supercilious treatment of the records of com- 

 petent authorities as to the existence of G. rhamni in Ireland ! " It has 

 been reported from Killarney, but it is more than doubtful " ! I trust 

 he will not consider it as impertinent if I say that unless he accom- 

 panied his MS. with specimens of the butterflies he has introduced, I 

 do not think his ipse di.vit will carry more conviction than the records 

 of the veteran entomologist Birchall, and myself ; or than the 

 testimony of the Hon. Miss Lawless, Mr. Ussher of Cappagh, Mr. 

 Neale (the Secretary of the Limerick Naturalists' Field Club), or 

 others who have published their captures from time to time, and have 

 reported its abundance in the neighbouring county of Galway, and its 

 existence in several others, which records were embodied in my notice 

 of the insect in the Catalogue of Irish Lepidoptera (Entom. xxvi. 120). 

 — W. F. DE V. Kane ; Drumreaske House, Monaghan. 



Mr. E. D. Purefoy is not accurate in stating that Goneptenjx rhamni 

 does not occur in Ireland ; nor is he right in saying that neither kind 

 of buckthorn grew in this country. If he will turn to the ' Cybele Hiber- 

 nica,' he will find that Ilhamnus catlutrticus is found in seven out of 

 the twelve botanical divisions of Ireland, and B. frani/ula in five of 

 those divisions ; and if he refers to Entom. xxvi. 120, he will find 

 Mr. Kane's report of the butterfly's occurrence in Kerry, various parts 

 of Galway, and in Longford. Last year Miss Bewley took it in the 

 Queen's County (' Irish Naturalist,' vol. viii. p. 87), but possibly her 

 specimens may have strayed from Mr. Purefoy's domains. Mr. 

 Purefoy is, however, to be congratulated on his very successful 

 attempt to establish this pretty insect among us ; for, though not alto- 

 gether a stranger, its appearances have been too few and far between. — 

 George E. Hart ; 14, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin, Dec. 5th, 189G. 



Is Thalpochares (Micra) Paula, Hlibn., a British Species ? — In 

 the recent sale of Mr. Briggs' collection was a specimen named as 

 above. It is certainly very different to any foreign specimens of 

 T. pcnda which I have seen. It far more resembles foreign specimens 

 of T. parva, the sexes of which arc by no means alike. In the sale 

 catalogue reference was made to the Ent, Mo. Mag., vol. ix. p. 19, 

 where, in the description of T. panla, the second fascia is stated to be 

 a mere brown line, once angulated, and before it is a crescent-shaped 

 upright white streak on the inner margin, occasionally becoming a 

 fascia, and reaching the costa. " Micra" parva is stated to have both 

 the fasciae straight and oblique. Now, as I understand from Mey rick's 

 Handbook, it is T. paiila which has both the fascire straight and 

 oblique, and T. parva which has the second fascia crooked. The larva, 

 too, of T. pnula feeds on Gnaphalium arenarium, which is not a British 

 plant. As it is more than twenty years since Mr. Barrett wrote the 



ENTOM.— JAN. 1897. C 



