iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



Catoptria decolorana not a British Species — Mr. Barrett in the 

 Entomologist's Monthly Magazine show that this species has been 

 erroneously included in the British list, on the strength of a record 

 said to have been made by Mr. Machin, but which he never made. 

 A correct figure of decolorana was given in the Entomologist for 

 December, 1881. 



Phycis (Pempelia) adelphella not British. — Mr. Barrett points 

 out in the same Magazine that "there is not a particle of evidence to 

 show that Pempelia adelphella has ever been taken in this country." 

 The error was pointed out by M. Ragonot (" E.M.M.," XXII., 55.) 



A Black variety of Phigalia pilosaria has been taken by Mr. Burton 

 at Gainsborough. — " E.M.M.," April, 1891, p. no. 



We hear that the first volume of Mr. Tutt's work on variation of 

 British Noctuae will be published during the month. 



Large Skate. — " One of the largest skates ever landed on our coast 

 was brought in on Monday, 2nd February, by the screw trawler Royal 

 Prince. It measured 7 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches broad. It was sent 

 to the fish market, North Shields." — " Newcastle Weekly Chronicle." 



Our Assistant Editor, Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, has been appointed 

 Curator to the Museum of the Institute of Jamaica. 



NOTES FROM MY DIARY FOR 1890. 



BY JOHN W. ELLIS, M.B., F.E.S. 



So little is known of the Coleopterous fauna of North Staffordshire 

 that the following notes, copied from my diary for 1890, may be of 

 interest to some of the readers of the " British Naturalist." They 

 contain the results of a few expeditions made during time snatched 

 from professional work during the writer's first year of residence at 

 Stoke-on-Trent ; together with a short list of the beetles collected 

 during a holiday at Cannock Chase in Mid- Staffordshire, and at 

 Broadstairs on the Kentish coast. 



April \th (Good Friday) was spent in collecting on Wetley Moor, 

 a stretch of heathery common with an elevation of about 800 feet 

 above the sea-level, situate about two miles on the Derbysliire side of 



