NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 23 



to be really fine, must be bred. It is then of an intensely black hue 

 (instead of black-brown) and is a decidedly " taking " species. C. 

 palcemon is almost equally local, but is fortunately much easier to obtain 

 in fine condition, if captured when it first appears at the end of May. 

 I suspect the reason one so seldom sees a fine representative series is 

 that very few collectors live within reach of this most charming 

 member of the Hesperidee. To some collectors the idea of placing a 

 monetary value on British Lepidoptera is altogether repugnant, But 

 I must confess that to me it seems the only feasible method of deter- 

 mining the relative value of the different species, and I do not mind 

 confessing that I am always deeply interested in the prices charged by 

 reliable dealers or realized at London auctions. Most of us, I think, 

 occasionally buy species we see no other possibility of obtaining, but 

 any one who thinks he can buy really fine specimens of prnni and 

 palcBwon at the usual quotations is grievously mistaken. I myself have 

 bought a good deal of late years, but have never succeeded in purchas- 

 ing a single fine bred specimen, or a single larva, of T. pruni, although 

 I have commissioned the chief dealers to procure me the latter even at 

 so high a price as 2s, each. I really think that a fine bred pruni, 

 compared with other British butterflies, is quite worth 5s., and 

 palcBviun I should estimate at 2s. With regard to the range of pruni 

 in these islands, I find old records of its occurrence at Linford Wood, 

 near Stony Stratford (Eutom. vii. 175) and at Beaumont, Berks 

 (Eutom. xvii. 267) ; but at the latter place the (single) specimen was 

 only seen. I wonder if any of your readers have come across pruni 

 elsewhere than in its Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire haunts. 

 — (Kev.) Gilbert H. Raynor ; Hazeleigh Rectory, Maldon, Dec. 13th, 

 1904. 



The Noctuid Genus Ala. — The name of this genus (Staudinger, 

 1882) was used by Lockington for a crustacean in 1877. Hence the 

 later name Trichanarta, Hampson, 1896, will stand, and the three 

 species will be known as Trichanarta picteti [Ala picteti, Stand.), T. 

 pretiosa [Alapretiosa, Alph.), and T. ladakensis [Anarta ladakensis, Feld.). 

 t. d. a. cockerell. 



The Entomological Collections in the Oxford University 

 Museum. — In the " Sixteenth Annual Report of the Delegates of the 

 University Museum " (for 1903) will be found an exceedingly interest- 

 ing account of work completed, in hand, or to be undertaken, con- 

 nected with the entomological collections in the Hope Department of 

 the Museum. Some idea of the thoroughness with which the labours 

 are there conducted may be gathered from the following excerpt from 

 Dr. Dixey's account of work upon the Pierinse which is embodied in 

 the " Report of the Hope Professor of Zoology" (pp. 21-69). 



" In 1893 the Pieriuae in the Hope Collection occupied about fifty 

 drawers ; they were to some extent sorted out into genera and species, 

 but the arrangement did not pretend to critical exactness, nor did it 

 profess to represent the existing knowledge of the difi'erent species with 

 their distribution and affinities. There were no labels except those in 

 MS. attached to the individual specimens. Tliese were often elaborate 

 and written with much care ; but they could not, as a rule, be read 

 without the removal of the specimen from the cabinet. The greater 



