129 



THE STORY OF VALERIA OLE AGIN A. 



By the Rev Joseph Gkeene. 



In the year 1856 I sent to ' The Zoologist ' (vol. xiv., p. 5073) 

 a short article entitled " Adaptation of the Colouring of Moths 

 to Autumnal Tints." At the close of it I asked whether any one 

 could inform me in whose collection were to be found authentic 

 specimens of the above insect. My object in doing so was to 

 obtain some particulars as to when, where, and by whom it was 

 discovered. From that day to this my question has remained 

 unanswered. A few months ago I obtained some curious " frag- 

 ments " of the 'Entomological Transactions.'* One of the 

 papers is headed thus: " Review of the Eise and Progress of 

 the Science of Entomology in Great Britain ; chronologically 

 digested. By A. H. Haworth, Esq., F.L.S., F.H.S., & P.E.S." 

 It commences with the following words : — " It is the intention of 

 the following paper to lay before the Society, in chronological 

 order, an outline of the rise and progress of our favourite 

 science in Great Britain, from its earliest dawnings to the present 



time." " The first entomological publication extant in 



these kingdoms, is an extensive one in folio, written in the Latin 

 language, and published at London in the year of our Lord 

 1634 by Thomas Mouffet, entitled ' Insectorum sive minimorum 

 Animalium Theatrum,' &c." He then gives a list in chrono- 

 logical order — accompanied by longer or shorter biographical 

 notices — of the various writers down to his own time. Most of 

 these are probably unknown to the present generation, but there 

 are nevertheless some familiar names, as Petiver, Bay, Albin, 

 Drury, Harris, Donovan, Martyn, &c. At page 56 he writes 

 thus: — "James Sowerby, F.L.S., published, on the 1st of 

 December, 1804, in octavo, at London, the first number of the 

 ' British Miscellany, or coloured figures of new, rare, or little- 

 known animal subjects, not before ascertained to be inhabitants 

 of the British Isles; and chiefly in the possession of the author.' 

 This number was followed by eleven others, at irregular periods, 



* The work quoted is the " Transactions of the [old] Entomological Society of 

 London, vol. i., part i.," which bears the date 1807 on its title page. In my copy, 

 with original wrappers, parts i. and ii. were issued together on May 1st, 1809 ; but 

 part i. (extending to page 112) was probably published separately, as the Eev. John 

 Burrell corrects an error occurring on p. 61, — " in the former pages of our 

 Transactions" (I.e., p. 225). — E. A. F. 



ENTOM. — JUNE, 1884. S 



