246 . ^P" 1 ' 



NOTES ON SOME VERY OLD SPECIMENS OF LEPIDOPTEEA. 

 BY C. W. DALE, F.E.S. 



Mr. Barrett, in the Ent. Mo. Mag., xxv, p. 223, in recording some 

 old insects in the collection of the Rev. Henry Burney, has apparently 

 fallen into some mistakes, which I will try to rectify, and also furnish 

 some additional information. 



"One is a very beautiful Plusia, obtained sixty years ago from 

 Mr. Charles Dale, who had it from the collection of Dr. Abbott, a 

 rather noted collector at the end of the last century." " This speci- 

 men is Plusia aurifera, H." " There is nothing to indicate whether 

 the present specimen is the same as was formerly in Mr. Ingpen's 

 collection, or another." 



My father, who is above referred to, purchased the collection and 

 manuscripts of Dr. Abbott, after his death in 1817. The Doctor's 

 diary commenced in 179S, and concluded in 1801 ; Abel Ingpen was 

 born in 1796, and died in 1854. If the specimen came from Dr. 

 Abbott's collection, it is therefore a foreign one, and, consequently, was 

 not valued by my father ; had it been a British one, he would not 

 have parted with it, and it would have been recorded both in Dr. 

 Abbott's manuscripts and also in my father's. 



Perhaps the following passage from Stephens' " Illustrations," 

 Haustellata, vol. iii, p. 105, may throw some light on the subject: 

 " One was taken near Dover by the late Bev. J. Lyon, and is now in 

 the British Museum ; the other was, I believe, found in the vicinity 

 of the metropolis, and at present forms a prominent ornament of a 

 collection at Manchester, having been rescued from oblivion by Mr. 

 Ingpen." 



The specimen is not in the sale catalogue of Mr. Ingpen's col- 

 lection in 1855. 



Mr. Barrett goes on to say, " Another of the specimens in question 

 is a Plusia illustris, which also came from an old British collection." 

 I possess a couple which were given to my father by Dr. Leach, who 

 informed him they were taken on Salisbury Plain by a Mr. Spratt in 

 1810. Mr. Burney's specimen probably also came from Dr. Leach. 



Mr. Burney's specimen of Agrotis subgothica probably came from 

 Mr. Baddon, of Barnstaple, the gentleman referred to by Mr. 

 Doubleday. 



Now I will refer to some in my own cabinet : — 



Acontia Solaris, var. lucida. — This species was taken by Mr. Stone 



