CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 69 



Meanwhile, one would like to know to what pest the entry in 

 the Vestry Minute really refers. But unfortunately the record is 

 no longer available on the spot, for, as the present Vicar, the Eev. 

 F. F. Kelly, kindly informs me, St. Giles' Church was entirely 

 destroyed by fire in 1841, and only the register-books of births, 

 deaths, and marriages were saved. Was it Stilpnotia salicis ? Per- 

 haps some reader of the ' Entomologist ' can supply the missing data ? 

 — H. Eowland-Brown ; Oxhey Grove, Harrow Weald, January 10th, 

 1911. 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



Scarcity of Wasps in the Chester District. — Wasps in 

 1910 were extraordinarily scarce in this part of Cheshire. Even in 

 a woodland tea-garden, a few miles up the river Dee, the waitresses 

 told me they had not seen one, although the cakes and other sweets 

 attract the insects from far and near. Queen wasps in spring seemed 

 hardly up to their usual numbers, and I am not aware that any re- 

 wards are offered here for their destruction. — J. Arkle ; Chester. 



Phtheochroa (Argyrolepia) schreibersiana, Frol., in Glou- 

 cestershire. — I am pleased to be able to record the capture of this 

 very local Tortrix in the Forest of Dean on June 23rd, 1910. I 

 netted two specimens flying in the afternoon sunshine about four 

 o'clock amongst some elm trees growing near water. Both were 

 rather worn, and therefore I did not realize what a prize I had at 

 first, but upon submitting one of the moths to Mr. Edward Meyrick, 

 F.E.S., he at once referred it to this species. Previous records 

 appear to be confined to Suffolk, Cambridge, and Hunts. — C. Gran- 

 ville Clutterbuck, F.E.S. ; Heathside, Heathville Road, Gloucester, 

 December 21st, 1910. 



Lepidoptera in the Portsmouth District. — The only other 

 working entomologist within some distance of Portsmouth would 

 appear to be the Rev. Tarbot, of Fareham, and as I am only new to 

 the neighbourhood, I have taken care only to mention those insects 

 which he has not previously captured here, unless possibly it may 

 be in some isolated instance. The capture of a freshly emerged 

 specimen of Garadrina cuhicularis at ivy on October 17th last might 

 be worth recording, as this would seem to be an exceptionally late 

 date for this species. The following few captures made during the 

 past season might also be of interest, as the majority of the species 

 seem to be more or less new to the district ; they were all made in a 

 small wood and marsh stretching for about half a mile below Pur- 

 brook, a small village about six miles from Portsmouth, on the main 

 Petersfield road. The gas-lamps from Portsmouth stretch out as far 

 as Purbrook, the last one being situated on a bridge at the edge of 

 the wood, and this light proved especially attractive, a total of no 

 less than ninety-five species being taken there ; this number would, 

 I am sure, have been largely augmented had I not been unavoidably 

 absent from home for the greater part of July and August and the 

 whole of May and September. At my first visit to this lamp on 



