NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 183 



all the others were returned to the cage, which was taken in August 

 to Scotland, in September to Lyme Regis, and was brought back to 

 London in October. No Eiqnthecia larvaB were taken by me last 

 season. On May 9th of this year a very fine specimen of E. togata 

 emerged and another, equally fine, on May 16th, two out of twelve 

 having thus spent two years in the pupal stage. Whether the 

 twelfth is dead or is deferring its emergence till 1910 remains to be 

 seen. I do not know whether this is the usual habit of the species, 

 or whether it is exceptional. The breeding-cage was kept indoors, 

 and certainly would have been at a higher average winter tempera- 

 ture inside a house in London than the pupae would have experienced 

 in the pine-woods of their native home in Scotland, so the deferred 

 emergence cannot be ascribed to refrigeration. — R. Meldola ; 

 6, Brunswick Square, W.C., June 3rd, 1909. 



The "Large Copper" Butterfly (Chrysophanus dispar). — 

 As no accepted record exists of the occurrence of this species in 

 Britain since 3848, I do not think I can be accused of acting in an 

 unscientific manner by trying to re-introduce it through Continental 

 specimens. I have, consequently (through the kindly help of Mr. 

 J. W. Tutt), turned out a number of the larvae of the " rutilus " form 

 at Wicken Fen, and I ask the support of all entomologists to preserve 

 specimens from capture for some years to come, in order to see if this 

 beautiful species can be I'e-established. It will also be interesting to 

 see if in the course of a few generations any reversion to the British 

 form "dis2)ar" might occur. I hear that an attempt is also being 

 made to introduce the other "disiMr" {Lymantria) at the same 

 place, so British (?) records of this will also be valueless. — G. H. 

 Verrall ; Sussex Lodge, Newmarket. 



The British Raphidiid^. — Referring to Mr. Claude Morley's 

 notes on the British species of Bajjliidia (Entom. June, 1909, 

 pp. 141-3), I may say that xanthostigma is distinctly the com- 

 monest species of the genus in Yorkshire, and cannot in any waj be 

 called rare. In my own experience it is not at all uncommon in the 

 Wharncliffe Woods, near Sheffield ; and in the Wheatley Woods, 

 Doncaster, one can almost always rely on beating it out any suitable 

 day at the end of May, or early in June. I have specimens, too, 

 taken in different years at Skipwith, near Selby, by the Rev. C. D. 

 Ash. Outside our county, Mr. G. W. Mason has sent it to me from 

 Wrawby Moor, Lincolnshire ; and I have taken it in Chippenham 

 Fen, Cambridgeshire, Of notata I have four fine specimens, all 

 taken on the same day in Bishop's Wood, near Selby, its other 

 recorded Yorkshire localities being York (R. McLachlan), and Haw 

 Park, Wakefield. Outside our county I have taken it in the New 

 Forest. Miss Alderson has sent me specimens from Sherwood 

 Forest, Notts, where she finds it not uncommonly, and I have several 

 from Gosfield in Essex, taken by the late Mr. Alfred Beaumont. 

 Neither cognata nor maaUicolUs are as yet recorded for Yorkshire, 

 but the latter has for so many years been known to occur in abundance 

 in the Oxshott (Surrey) district, that it was a surprise to read that 

 Mr. Morley regarded it as "apparently confined to the New Forest." 

 —Geo. T. Porritt; Elm Lea, Huddersfield, June 12th, 1909. 



