CLOSTERA ANACHORETA. 79 



inland locality about six miles from Folkestone" (Entom. p. 112, 

 1888). Upon referring to the above, I find the statement as given 

 by Dr. Knaggs to be correct, except that he " omits " the very 

 important point that Mr. Cooper expressly states that he found 

 these larvse in 1859 ! 



Clostera ANACHORETA. — Dr. Knaggs has been for so many years upon 

 the entomological retired list, that it is no wonder he has not eadier replied 

 to Mr. Greene. Will he further kindly say whether, in those bygone days, 

 he ever attempted to diffuse C. anachoreta by the establishment of outlying 

 colonies ? He is reported to have done so at Deal ; and specimens from 

 there, even so late as ten years ago, may be the outcome of some such an 

 effort. With regard to the original captures, the supposition was, of 

 course, that the larvse or ova were introduced with the young trees. But 

 it is not policy to plant trees in full leaf, and I doubt whether any of the 

 insects named would deposit sufficient eggs upon a stem to ensure a brood 

 in the summer. Moreover, years ago 1 was at some trouble to ascertain 

 whence the trees and shrubs were derived, and ultimately traced them to 

 the late Mr. Masters, whose nursery plantations were almost world- 

 renowned for varieties of forest and ornamental trees. We might then have 

 expected to obtain C. anachoreta at Canterbury, which should have been 

 its head-quarters ; but I have never heard of its occurrence so far inland, 

 from which I assume that, from whatever source the parents were derived, 

 the balsam poplars had nothing to do with it. In 1888, a single example 

 of C. anachoreta (and a variety too) was bred from a cocoon found upon a 

 wall at the back of the Folkestone Road, Dover. Certainly no one had 

 been breeding the insect in the town for many years, if ever, and there had 

 been no young trees planted for five and twenty years within larval reach of 

 the spot. I cordially unite with Dr. Knaggs in regretting that, at the 

 present day, doubts are thrown broadcast upon almost every specimen cap- 

 tured in the past. — Sydney Webb ; Maidstone House, Dover. 



I should like to add a few words to Dr. Knaggs' interesting note on this 

 species (Entom. 40). On reading the Rev. J. Greene's second article (Entom. 

 xxi. 31), I thought it would be desirable to ascertain some particulars of the 

 planting of these plantations, and accordingly I asked the assistance of 

 Folkestone entomologists for this purpose (Entom. xxi. 90). In reply, Mr. 

 Austen wrote to me that, after considerable trouble, he had ascertained that 

 the trees were supplied from a nursery garden at Ashford. This disposes 

 of the idea of anachoreta being imported from abroad with the trees. I 

 may add that I frequently searched the young poplars in Mr. Gibbon's 

 nursery garden at the back of the old windmill, as well as those at the foot 

 of the Dover Hill, and others in the neighbourhood, but without finding 

 a trace of anachoreta. —G. A. Briggs ; 55, Lincoln's Inn Fields, February 

 14, 1898. 



