CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 219 



parent, which was very conspicuous on a dark brick wall, but I had 

 no idea the female was there also, until I came right up to it. This 

 struck me as being an excellent instance of the usefulness of melanism 

 for protective purposes in the neighbourhood of smoky London. — 

 F. M. B. Carr ; 46, Handen Koad, Lee, S.E. 



British TACHiNiDiE. — I should be very greatly obliged to any rearers 

 of Lepidoptera, &c., who would save for. me any Tachinidse (parasitic 

 two-winged flies) they happen to breed. — Colbran J. Wainwright ; 2, 

 Handsworth Wood Road, Handsworth, Staffs. 



British Orthoptera. — Mr. W. J. Lucas, of 28, Knight's Park, 

 Kingston-on-Thames, who is preparing a Monograph on British 

 Orthoptera, would be glad to receive local lists of the various species 

 of earwigs, cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets. The lists 

 should include every species, however common, and those from Scot- 

 land and Ireland would be especially welcome. 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



Acidalia marginepunctata Ab. — I see in the June number of ' The 

 Entomologist ' a figure of a curious aberration of Acidalia margine- 

 punctata taken by Mr. J. P. Lawson at Clevedon. I took an exactly 

 similar specimen in Sheppey, on the evening of Aug. 26th, 1899, with a 

 large number of typical examples. — E. A. Cockayne ; 6, Tapton House 

 Road, Sheffield, June 23rd, 1902. 



Pyrameis (Vanessa) cardui in Fifeshire. — As the appearance of 

 this butterfly in Scotland is irregular, it may be worthy of note that I 

 took a fine specimen on Kemback Hill, four miles from here, on June 

 28th last. It was flying among firs, over heather adjoining cultivated 

 land. — Henry H. Brown ; Cupar-Fife. 



Sphinx pinastri at Winchester. — On June 30th one of my pupils 

 took a fine specimen of S. pinastri on a lamp-post in the suburbs of 

 Winchester. — E. I. Johns; Winton House, Winchester. 



Iphiclides (Papilio) podalirius in Lancashire. — A short time ago 

 a scholar attending a country school in South Lancashire brought a 

 live butterfly to the school and gave it to the master. The latter 

 killed it, and asked a friend interested in the Lepidoptera to mount 

 and name it. He said it was Iphiclides podalirius. The specimen was 

 then shown to several collectors, some of whom strongly urged that 

 inquiries should be made concerning its capture, &c., and the results 

 published, as the affair was one which could not fail to be interesting 

 to all engaged in the study of the Lepidoptera. The inquiries resulted 

 as follows : — The fly was found entangled in a spider's web, in the 

 forcing-house of Mr. Wm. Westwell, florist, Pennington Leigh. The 

 following is a list of all the plants which have been in that house 

 during the last year : — Small palms from Belgium, ditto from St. 

 Albans, roses from France, spiraea from Holland, azaleas from Belgium, 

 aralia (seeds) from France. — Wm. Burton; 39, Newton Road, Lowton, 

 Newton-le-Willows, July 1st, 1902. 



