332 Notice of the Capture of Vanessa. Huntera, 



Query. — Is not the black variety the Gasterosteus pun- 



85 gitius {fg. 85.) of Lin- 



naeus and Pennant? which 

 is frequently black, is a 

 longer-shaped fish than 

 the G.aculeatus(,y%.84.), 

 and has ten dorsal fins? I have been told these fishes will kill 

 gold fishes if confined in the same globe with them. — J. D, 

 as. Feb. S. 1829. 



Art. VII. Notice of the Capture of Vanessa Huntera, for the 

 first time in Britain, with a Catalogue of rare Insects captured. 

 By J. C. Dale, Esq. 



Sir, 



On the arrival of every new Number of your Magazine of 

 Natural History, I am on the look-out for new discoveries in 

 (especially British) 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 Vanessa Huntera 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 unca and Banks^a^^a, &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 in, or to be expunged from, the 

 British list.* I am, Sir, &c. J. C. Dale. 



Glanville's Wooton, Dorset, Jan. 3. 1830. 



* I have just taken a most curious Stylops ? (W^dlken ?), by sweeping some flowers on the 

 Hill, not quite so large .as d^ , and the antennee, &c., very different from Curtis's figures in 

 his British Entomology ,• 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. 



