48 THE entomologist's record. 



laOTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Egyptian and Syrian butterflies. — Corrections. — The Egyptian 

 list given by me in the Entoinologut' s Record, xvii., no. 6, contained 

 two doubtful species which now prove to be Parnara zelleri and 

 Hesperia [Syricthus) pJilomidis. In my Syrian list, appearing in the 

 same volume, I must apologise for having mistaken a very pale form 

 of Carcharodus althaeae for C. lavaterae, though here Lederer excuses 

 me by noting the likeness between Beyrout C. althaeae and the other 

 species. For Syricthus nomas read S. malvae var. melotis. I took 

 S. nomas this year and now appreciate the difference. .S'. alveus, of 

 which I took three specimens at Ain Zahalta, in July 1904, must also 

 be added to my list. — P. P. Graves, Turf Club, Cairo. December 6th, 

 1905. 



Hypolimnas misippus in Egypt. — Damaged H. misippus have been 

 brought me from Ghizeh and from near Abou Kebir in the Delta, and 

 a friend describes the insect as occurring in summer at Kafr Ammar, 

 some 80 miles south of Cairo. It appears in July and August, and is 

 not common. — Ibid. 



Erroneous record of Polia xanthomista occurring in East Kent. 

 — In a recent report of one of the societies, Mr. J. P. Barrett is stated 

 to have exhibited a Polia xanthoniista taken in East Kent, in 1904. 

 Mr. Barrett is an entomologist of such ripe experience that I 

 hardly like suggesting a blunder, but it appears so unlikely that 

 this insect should occur in Kent that I write to enquire. Mr. 

 Tutt, in The British Noctuae and its Varieties, iii., pp. 44 et seq., 

 describes in detail the typical form Polia xanthomista, Hb., var. 

 niyrocincta, Tr., var. nivescens, Staud., and ab. statices, Gregs., 

 but one assumes that Mr. Barrett has already referred to this work. 

 According to Mr. Tutt, the type only doubtfully occurs in the British 

 Isles, the bulk of the examples being either var. nigrocincta or ab. 

 statices. At the time of writing British Noctuae, etc. (1892), the 

 species was confined to the Isle of Man and Cornwall in the British 

 Isles, and although one supposes it may occur on the North Devon 

 coast, Pembroke, etc., one cannot believe that the insect has been 

 taken in East Kent. Has not Mr. Barrett wrongly identified his 

 specimen? — A. M. Cochrane, Lewisham. [We observed that Mr. 

 Barrett exhibited at a recent meeting of the South London Entomo- 

 logical Society a specimen of a Xylina under this name. We only 

 glanced at it and supposed it to be Xylina furcifera (conformis). There 

 has never been, of course, any confusion between this species and 

 Polia xanthomista, but the exhibitor has evidently confused the names 

 of two very distinct species. Until now, however, all the examples of 

 A', furcifera taken in Britain have been also confined to the west — 

 Cardiff, Newport and Neath. In a recent note in answer to enquiry from 

 us, Mr. Barrett, who is evidently not clear about the names of these two 

 very distinct insects, states that it is the species that Evan John bred (see 

 Brit. Noct., iii., p. 104), i.e., furcifera, he further supposes his example 

 to have been an immigrant, but this, we think, cannot be, since, so far 

 as our memory carries us, the specimen we saw was certainly not the 

 continental form of furcifera (our British are entirely different). 

 Could the insect possibly be Xylina lamda var. somniculosa, which we 

 have described in detail {op. cit., p. 101) ? All our British examples 



