332 Notice of the Capture of Vanéssa Hintera, 
Query. —Is not the black variety the Gasterosteus pun- 
gitius (fig. 85.) of Lin- 
neeusand Pennant? which 
is frequently black, is a 
longer-shaped fish than 
the ‘G.aculeatus( fg o.84.), 
and has ten dorsal fins? I have been told these fishes will kill 
old fishes if confined in the same globe with them. —J. D. 
CS. feb. 3..1829: 
Art. VII. Notice of the Capture of Vanéssa Hintera, for the 
Jirst time in Britain, with a Catalogue of rare Insects captured. 
By J. C. Dace, Esq. 
Sir, 
On the arrival of every new Number of your Magazine of 
Natural History, I am on the look-out for new discov eries 1n 
(especially Br itish) entomology, the most extensive branch of 
natural history; and as such information, I believe, will be 
acceptable to many of your readers, I beg to announce (should 
not Captain Blomer have previously given you the particulars), 
for the first time, the capture of Vanéssa Hintera in Britain, by 
Captain Blomer, at Withybush, near Haverfordwest, South 
Wales (about ten miles from a seaport), in July or August, 
1828 ; which was, till very lately, considered by him as a small 
and odd ¥ variety of V. cardui (or Painted Lady Butterfly), and 
which he has very handsomely added to my cabinet. Dr. 
Turton describes it as a native of North America (alone, I 
believe), from which place it might have been imported ; but 
that remains to be proved, as I never yet heard of the im- 
portation of a Papilio in this way, although beetles, &c., in 
timber are of frequent occurrence at seaports. However, it 
ought to be recorded; and I hope it may lead to further en- 
quiry as to its British nativity or not. Many species of 
moths (Erastria tinea and Banksédna, &c., for instance), of the 
same species as found in America, have also been captured in 
plenty, inland; and, no doubt, they are aboriginal British: 
but on this point there are various opinions; and as many errors 
have crept into the history of our British insects, I subjoin an 
extract from my own catalogue, with a view to correction, and 
proof of their title to stand i in, or to be expunged from, the 
British list.* I am, Sir, &c. J.C. Dau. 
Glanville’s Wooton, Dorset, Jan. 3. 1830. 
* I have just taken a most curious St¥lops ? (WAlkeri 2), by sweeping some flowers on the 
Hill, not quite so large as GH, and the antenne, &c., very different from Curtis’s figures in 
his British Entomology 5 5 and I found the genus Halictus infested with the larvae of this order 
(Strepsiptera), in the spring, in the New Forest. —J. C.D. June 11. 1830. 
