BOLETOBIA FULIGINARIA. AY 
tion six very fine specimens of Boletobia fuliginaria, 
which he was interesting himself to sell for Mr. Edward 
Upton, of Bermondsey. Mr. Williams told me that he 
knew the history of the specimens, and that they could 
be depended on as genuine native London examples of 
this rarity. The simple fact of Mr. Williams offering 
them to his friends as genuine was in itself a good 
guarantee, and was sufficient to tempt me to obtain a 
pair. These I placed in my cabinet with every confi- 
dence, which opinion has since been confirmed beyond 
suspicion. 
* Mr. Williams gave me at the time a short history of 
them, which I will here detail. I cannot do better 
than quote from one of his letters to me, in which he 
says, “Some few years since I was looking over 
some insects taken by Mr. Upton, when he called my 
attention to what he supposed was a variety of the 
common Fidonia atomaria, and which he kindly offered 
to give me, but I declined to accept it, telling him it 
might be of some value, although at that time I did 
not know the name of the insect. I, however, exhi- 
bited the specimen (which was a very large one, and 
not quite perfect) at a meeting of the South London 
Kntomological Society, when Mr. Farn at once recog- 
nised it as Boletobia fuliginaria. Mr. Upton was told 
of the rarity of his capture, and advised to keep a good 
look-out for more.” 
This he has evidently done, and each year since 
Mr. Upton has taken an odd specimen, and in some 
years two or three, but generally wasted, sometimes 
only portions of wings found floating on water. All 
these specimens were taken near the river Thames. 
Last year Mr. Upton, after many failures, succeeded 
in discovering the larva feeding on fungus on rotten 
wood, and by dint of close search secured full-fed 
larvee, and also pup, from which he bred some twenty 
specimens ; and it was some of these bred examples 
that Mr. Williams offered to his friends. 
A few weeks later I arranged with Mr. Williams to 
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