CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 321 



eat the whole leaves or other solid parts of the plant. The substance must 

 be very nutritious, as they feed up in about the same time as when fed on 

 8. vulgaris, and are equally well developed. Mr. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S., 

 informs me that last spring he planted out some greenhouse cinerarias in 

 the flower border, and in a short time they were stripped of their foliage by 

 larvae of N. aniiidata. The same gentleman also records the larvae as 

 feeding at Dunedin on a glabrous-leaved species of introduced pelargonium. 

 It is important to record these and other changes in the insect fauna of 

 newly colonized countries, as they are interesting in their bearing on the 

 specialisation of species. Although many are highly specialised, some are 

 able to adopt new food or acquire omnivorous habits, and thus survive the 

 change ; others are unable to change their food or environment, and rapidly 

 become extinct. No doubt many remarkable forms have already passed 

 and are now passing away from this cause alone. It is the same cause, 

 only in degree, which has extirpated, and continues to extirpate, several 

 anomalous species in the New Zealand Avifauna. — W. W. Smith ; Ash- 

 burton, N. Z., April, 1893. 



HoMOPTERA OF BRITAIN. — J. Edwards, Colesborne, Cheltenham, 

 appeals to collectors of Homoptera for notices of captures in any part of the 

 United Kingdom, for his forthcoming work on that group. 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPOETS. 



The Early Sriason : — 



Bucks. — I have to record the capture of a specimen of Argynnis adippe 

 this afternoon, a short distance from the Chalfont Road station, in fine con- 

 dition, and that to all appearance had freshly emerged from the chrysalis. 

 Is not June 8th a very early date for this species? — F. A. Walker ; Dun 

 Mallard, Cricklewood, June 8, 1893. 



Cambridgeshire. — Papilio machaoii was out in full force in Wicken Fen 

 on Thursday, April 27th, and a number were taken by about half a dozen 

 Cambridge undergraduates, who had come up the river in a steam-launch, 

 each armed with a net for that purpose. I decided to leave the field to the 

 younger men, as I had captured the butterfly in the same locality several 

 years ago, and perceiving that there were already quite as many engaged in 

 the exciting chase as were likely to prove successful. Another large party 

 was present on the occasion, consisting of male and female pupils of the 

 popular Professor McKenny Hughes. — F. A. Walker ; Dun Mallard, 

 Cricklewood, June 8, 1893. 



Devonshire. — I was much interested with the various notices of early 

 captures which appeared in the last number of the ' Entomologist,' and as 

 I spent a considerable part of April at Instow, North Devon, and met with 

 some species at an earlier date than yet mentioned, I send you a few notes 

 of my experience. I arrived at Instow on the I4th of the month, and on 

 that day, while the train was stopping at Morchard Road, noticed a bright 

 and fresh A. euphrosyne disporting itself among the flowers in the pretty 

 little station garden. N. tages was also seen the same day; and on the 16th 

 was followed by S. alveolus. On the 18th, tages and alveolus were out in 

 numbers ; and C. phlceas, A. fuliginosa, P. gamma, H. cespitalis, and 



ENTOM. — JULY, 1893. U 



