Insects. 4903 



Unusual abundance of Vanessa To. — On ihe banks of the river Avon, a short 

 distance from its confluence with the Severn, Vanessa Io was literally in hundreds : 

 every head of Fuller's teasel (Dipsacus Fullonum) being covered with them ; any one 

 desiring to take specimens might have secured hundreds. Common as this beautiful 

 insect is, I never before saw it in such unusual numbers: I had been in the same 

 locality a few days before and did not see a single specimen. — Charles W. IVatkins ; 

 Clifton, October 1, 1855. 



Reputed British Butterflies. — I have found a few notes, written a long time ago, 

 on certain butterflies which the late Mr. Haworth thought it would be better to 

 expunge from the British list. When a person is proved guilty of trying to pass off 

 as British what he knows to be foreign he ought to be well exposed, but he ought also 

 to be thoroughly convicted of it. The Hesperia Vitellius of the old ' Entomological 

 Transactions' is in my possession ; it came from the collection of Dr. Abbott, who, I 

 suspect, was a relation of Georgian Abbott [the joint author with Sir J. E. Smith of 

 the 'Insects of Georgia']. I doubt whether Haworth rightly understood Abbott that 

 he lately took H. Vitellius in Bedfordshire; it is more probable that he wrote he had 

 " lately added it to his collection : " unfortunately Haworth destroyed Abbott's letter, 

 in which the facts were mentioned. On seeking for this insect in the British Museum 

 I could not find one exactly like it, but found a species like it on the obverse, but 

 having the reverse entirely different, and another exactly vice versa, the obverse 

 different, the reverse similar. Mr. Westwood is quite mistaken about this insect, the 

 species in his work having no affinity thereto. Mr. Westwood is no less mistaken as to 

 the Hesperia Oileus of the ' Entomological Transactions,' as my original specimen 

 from Dr. Abbott is H. Syrichtus, also a Georgian species, and very much lighter in 

 colour than Mr. Westwood's Oileus. I observe the name Oileus is always quoted 

 with a note of interrogation after it. As the original specimen of Thecla Spini came 

 into my hands, I took it to the British Museum, and having compared it, with the 

 assistance of Mr. F. Smith, I find it to correspond with the T. Silenus of the British 

 Museum, which is identical with the T. Melinus of Hiibner, and is a native of Brazil. 

 The pin is old, and had a very foreign look about it. I think Haworth told me he 

 received it from Captain Lindegren, or from a London dealer who said he took it near 

 London. Be this as it may, it has no claim whatever to be considered a British 

 specimen. I have seen no less than four species placed in collections as representa- 

 tives of Haworth's Thecla Spini ; one in the cabinet of the late Joseph Sparshall, who 

 told me he received it from Haworth, who broke his pair to give him one : in another 

 account Sparshall said he received it from Dr. Leach, in exchange for the Gastropacha 

 Pini figured by Curtis. Curtis took a drawing of this insect but I do not know the name 

 of the species. I have seen T. Ilicis, received from Mansfield, also placed as represent- 

 ing T. Spini. Lastly, I have a true T. Spini, received from Chapman, of York, mixed 

 with British insects, and unset, but he very fairly told me he could not warrant its 

 being British. — J. C.Dale ; Glanvilles Wootton, near Sherborne, September 18, 1855. 



Capture of the Larva of Deilephila Galii and Stauropus Fagi at Devonporl. — On 

 the 3rd of September a friend of mine obtained possession of a larva of the rare 

 D. Galii, taken in the gardens of Admiral Sir W. Parker, the present Port Admiral ; 

 two others had unfortunately been destroyed by the gardener a day or two previously. 

 The same person also had, on the 8th of the same month, a fine larva of Stauropus 

 Fagi brought him, taken in the park of the Earl of Mount Edgecumbc— W. II. Hay- 

 ward; Devonport, October 2, 1855. 



