] 4- [January, 



released in this country, or the descendants of such invited colonists. Now 

 niv purpose in alluding to this note is not to discuss whether Mr. Green's 

 hypothesis may or may not be correct, but to consider for a moment his state- 

 ment that, ''should these two butterflies {Laertias philenor and Papilio bianor) 

 actually gain a footing in the south of England it will be a matter for con- 

 gratulation," and his implied encomium on the action which may have led to 

 such a result. I must confess that to me it appears very questionable whether 

 entomologists are justified, however great the pleasure to be derived from a 

 contemplation of such beautiful insects, in thus interfering with and modifying 

 the natural fauna of any insular area such as the British Islands. For it be- 

 comes at once obvious that were such methods of colonization adopted to any 

 considerable or successful extent, it would, by the introduction of quite mis- 

 leading and illusive factors, render completely fallacious any theories as regards 

 distribution which may in the future be erected on what might be supposed to 

 represent the autochthonous fauna of Britain. Of course it may be replied that 

 these butterflies in question are so conspicuously unlike ^nj British species, 

 that even if they did become permanently established here no Lepidopterist 

 could ever mistake them for anything but what they would be — introduced 

 Alliens — even if there existed no printed record of their introduction by 

 Mr, Cecil Floersheim or other similar liberator. It is the principle involved, 

 however, which I am now questioning and not this particular application of it, 

 ^and students of other Orders will, I think, easily realize how hopeless would 

 be the attempt to construct any credible theory of faunistic distribution, past 

 land connections, submerged Continental areas, and so on, topics to which that 

 izreat entomolooist Dr. Russel Wallace has devoted one of his most interesting 

 volumes, had a century ago some enthusiast imported from other lands and set 

 free in suitable areas in this country various species of his special Order, be- 

 cause their beauty might gratify the eye or excite the interest of generations to 

 come. The same argument would, of course, hold good as regards the flora of 

 any insulated area ; but the damage (if damage it be) has already been to a 

 large extent done in this countr3% and all botanists are aware how difiicult it 

 is now for many of our apparently native plants to vindicate their claim to be 

 in reality autochthouic. Possibly the question may be regarded by many ento- 

 mologists as too trivial to be worth discussion ; I am, however, not entirely 

 convinced that this is so, and am tempted to write this brief note in the hope 

 that it may elicit the opinion of biologists better fitted to judge of the subject 

 on its merits than I may be. — W. Ji^. Sharp, Crowthorne, Berks: Dec. loth, 

 1917, 



Cryptophagiis l<pvendaU Gcintjlhauer in Iliclnmmd Fork. — In one of the 

 enclosures in Richmond Park is a large dead oak-tree, in which I have occa- 

 sionallv found the y^i\n?6ns, o^ Mcgapenthes tibialis during the past ten years. 

 1 visit it several times every year, hoping eventually to find perfect specimens. 

 In August last I noticed that a strong colony of Vespa c/ennanica had esta- 

 blished its nest in tliis tree, the wasps entering and leaving it by a small hole 

 about ten feet from the ground, situated behind a large projecting piece of the 

 trunk. Having determined to take the nest after the wasps had died off (such 

 places being very good traps for beetles), I set out on November 20th, armed 

 witli a saw and digger. After cutting away the projecting wood, the nest — a 

 very large one — was exposed in a hollow of the tree. The whole nest, with 



