164 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



will be many. But why have " The Publishers " (ante, p. 109) sought 

 to throw the blame for their original omission on the deceased author ? 

 Why did they endeavour to construe my words of reverence to his 

 name (ante, p. 87) into a " cold douche" upon his life's work ? Had 

 they seen fit, in the first instance, to have spent one-tenth of the labour 

 and cost incurred in printing a comparatively useless " List of Plates " 

 in providing a thoroughly up-to-date specific index, there would have 

 been nothing to say. However, we are grateful to the publishers for 

 having given us, even though late, this "Alphabetical List of Species 

 contained in Barrett's ' Lepidoptera of the British Islands ' " ; the pages 

 of this great work are now open to us, and we can well afford to " bury 

 the hatchet." — Robert Adkin ; Lewisham, June, 1907. 



Porthesia chrysorrhcea. — While at Eastbourne in the early days 

 of this month I chanced upon a bramble patch growing in a sheltered 

 nook close to the sea, which was devastated by the nearly full-fed 

 larvae of Porthesia chrysorrhcea. There must have been some thousands 

 of them, and many of the " nests " in which they had hybernated were 

 found on the brambles. Although I have worked the district pretty 

 closely for the past ten years or more, I have not previously met with 

 this species, nor could I find any other colony in the surrounding 

 country, so far as I was able to explore it. The fact of this isolated 

 colony occurring close to the south-east corner of our island appears to 

 me to suggest very strongly the probability of the parent moths being 

 immigrants, and the recorded fact of the species being "in considerable 

 numbers over a large area" of the South of France last year (Proc. 

 South London Ent. Soc. 1906, p. 88) may perhaps also give a clue to 

 their possible origin. — Robert Adkin; Lewisham, June, 1907. 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



Coleoptera near Barnstaple. — Last year I gave over some of my 

 time to the Coleoptera, without much success as far as rarities go, yet 

 I took several interesting beetles, and am fully persuaded to continue 

 this summer. My two chief collecting-grounds were Braunton Bur- 

 rows (including Santon and the cliffs) and the valley of the Yeo, at 

 Barnstaple. There is no necessity for me to point out the riches 

 which entomologists are (I almost said were) accustomed to find on 

 Braunton Burrows. The Burrows have an exceptionally low rainfall, 

 and on account of the sands it is probably the hottest part of North 

 Devon in the summer. The Yeo valley is well wooded, but with 

 young trees — oaks and larches. The banks of the river are profuse 

 with large flowering plants, and the smaller members of the Geode- 

 phaga run over the shingle beaches in thousands. There are very few 

 ponds in Devon, and especially few in the north of the county, and 

 consequently I saw no great numbers of water-beetles. Rocky moor- 

 land brooks are of course numerous. The following list, which is by 

 no means one to be proud of, seeing the time I devoted to collecting, 

 contains the most noticeable and most notable forms I came across. 

 Outside Braunton Burrows I consider the Barnstaple district to be 



