REARING EXOTIC INSECTS. 277 



intercourse with other countries, that many new in- 

 sects are establishing themselves as natives ; as an 

 instance of which I may mention the beautiful 

 purple Beetle Callidium Violaceum, represented in 

 Plate VII., which was once extremely rare; but 

 since the vast importation of timber for railway 

 purposes, in which the insect has come over in its 

 larva state, it has become quite common. 



I also suspect that many professional dealers 

 have been exceedingly successful (under the rose) in 

 introducing rare insects only vaguely reported as 

 British, by means of imported eggs or larvae, which 

 they have placed in suitable situations, and then 

 captured the perfect insect in actual flight — selling 

 it at a high price as an extraordinary British rarity. 

 If such should have been the case with the fine 

 Moth, the " Kentish Glory," hitherto so rare in 

 England, the experiment must have been indeed 

 triumphant, as the beech woods of Bannoch now 

 absolutely swarm with them. This I believe, 

 however, to have been a genuine "find" of the 

 habitat of an extremely local insect. And yet it 

 appears strange that a Moth so conspicuous, both for 

 size and colouring, should have continued entirely 

 unnoticed by Scotch entomologists, if it had always 

 existed there in such abundance. 



