292 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



report" of H. pi?iastri being British, the locality whence the speci- 

 mens came being vaguely given as " Scotland." He further notes 

 that, "as it is generally admitted on this authority to a place in 

 the cabinets of English insects," he cannot refrain from giving it 

 a place in his Natural History of British Insects. Haworth, in 1803, 

 mentions that it occurs " in the month ot June," and that it is 

 to be found on the trunks of pines, " and is taken near London 

 very rarely." Stephens, in 1828, is more exact, and mentions "one 

 specimen taken in June, near Colney Hatch wood, about 30 years 

 ago, and a second in the neighbourhood of Esher." This takes 

 us back to the time of Haworth, and affords a clue as to the 

 amount of his (Haworth's) information about the species. Stephens, 

 however, adds that, " at Rivelston Wood, near Edinburgh, one 

 specimen was taken by Dr. Leach, and several by Mr. Wilson, of 

 the College." In 1842, Marshall states ( Ent., i., p. 231) that he saw a 

 living specimen in Cumberland in 1827 or 1828. At the February, i860, 

 meeting of the Entomological Society ot London (Zoo/., p. 6940), 

 Sealey exhibited a specimen which was stated to have been taken in a 

 firwood near Romsey, in June, 1859, by a Mr. Morris, but the latter's 

 brother, who had added Swiss specimens to the collection, said that he 

 remembered taking the example himself in his own garden (see Ent. Wk. 

 Int., vii., p. 193). We next find records of single specimens said to have 

 been taken 6 years previously, one by Miss Bicknell at Hinton St. George, 

 and now in the Museum at Crewkerne* (Spiller, Ent., vi., p. 103), and 

 the other in ( ? ) Devonshire*, captured 11 years previously, by Miss 

 Jones (Purdue, loc. cit.\ p. 127), the latter example reported to have 

 been taken in September, 186 1, a remarkable date for the species. 

 Higgins exhibited, at the meeting of the Entomological Society of 

 London, November 17th, 1873 (Ent., vii., p. 46), an example said to 

 have been captured at Harwich in June, 1872, but, as it was shown at 

 the same time as two Hyles euphorbiae, also stated to have been bred 

 from the same place, the record need not be considered, and then 

 we learn that Waller took one at Waldringfield in August, 1876 (E.M.M., 

 xiv., p. 136), that Frere had one emerge on August 5th, 1876, 

 from a pupa, found near Wickham Market (Ent., x., 210), that 

 Long captured another at Tuddenham, on June 25th, 1877 

 (Stainton, E.M.M.,x'\v., p. 67, 136), and Waller a third in August, 1877, 

 also at Waldringfield (loc. cit., xiv., p. 136), whilst Mrs. Carpenter 

 obtained a larva at Leiston in 1880, and Bloomfield ( Lep. Suffolk, 

 p. 8) records two for 1878, at Waldringfield (see E.M.M., xvi., 

 p. 93), whilst yet another was taken by Waller, on July 14th, 1879, 

 at the same place (E.M.M., xvi., p. 93), and Bloomfield (lep. 

 Suffolk, p. 8) notes another at Saxmundham in 1879. On July 22nd, 

 1 881, and July 23rd, 1882, Ager recorded two examples at Ipswich 

 (Ent., xiv., p. 210 ; xvi., p. 187), and Battiscombe gives a record 

 for Herefordshire in September, 1881 (loc. cit., xiv., p. 255), almost 

 certainly a blunder. Previously to these records, Carrington had 

 noted (Entom., x., p. 6) that he had received letters stating that one had 

 been " bred in the eastern counties " and that another had " graced 



* Both these examples are reputed to have been taken by ladies in 

 gardens. One suspects a want of care in keeping really British captures separate 

 from Continental insects, since neither was recorded as British until several 

 years after their reputed capture. 



