154 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



value, although at that time I did not know the name of the 

 insect. I, however, exhibited the specimen (which was a very 

 large one, and not quite perfect) at a meeting of the South 

 London Entomological Society, when Mr. Farn at once recog- 

 nised it as Boletobia fuliginaria. Mr. Upton was told of the 

 rarity of his capture, and advised to keep a good look out 

 for more." 



This he has evidently done, and each year since Mr. Upton 

 has taken an odd specimen, and in some years two or three, but 

 generally wasted, sometimes only portions of wings found 

 floating on water. All these specimens were taken near the 

 River Thames. Last year Mr. Upton, after many failures, 

 succeeded in discovering the larva feeding on fungus on rotten 

 wood, and by dint of close search secured full-fed larvae, and also 

 pupae, from which he bred some twenty specimens ; and it was 

 some of these bred examples that Mr. Williams offered to his 

 friends. 



A few weeks later I arranged with Mr. Williams to be intro- 

 duced to Mr. Upton, who called upon me with him. The object 

 of this visit was to ask me to meet them in Bermondsey, and see 

 for myself the genuineness of Upton's discovery ; the reason 

 assigned being that doubts had been expressed in some quarters 

 as to the specimens being truly British moths. This was a very 

 natural doubt, without some proof, and one which I should most 

 certainly have held, but from the fact of my relying on my 

 friend's good faith, and that to me was above suspicion. 

 However I agreed to meet him and Mr. Upton to be conducted 

 to the locality, which was on May the 24th. It will readily be 

 understood that I am not free to give the exact spot, as that 

 would tend to deprive Mr. Upton of the fruits of his discovery. 



We were conducted to an old w T ooden building in Bermondsey, 

 near the river, to a spot most difficult of approach, in an obscure 

 light, consequent on its position ; and there, after a short search, 

 Mr. Upton showed us the larva apparently feeding. In all he 

 found four specimens. The food appeared to be a black, soot}^- 

 looking fungus or mould. The position of the larvae, the 

 surroundings, and the locality were such as would convince 

 anyone, as it did me, that I had seen B. fuliginaria really and 

 truly at home. But, to remove any possible doubt, if this queer- 

 looking fungoid mass was the food of the larva, I suggested that 



