THE 



BRITISH NATURALIST. 



NEW SERIES, 



WHAT CONSTITUTES A BRITISH INSECT AT THE 



PRESENT TIME? 



BY C. S. GREGSON. 



Some time ago, I had a specimen of a dark variety of Monarcha pre- 

 sented to me by an esteemed correspondent, presumably as a British 

 |.nsect, and I placed it in my new collection, feeling very grateful for it. 

 Very shortly afterwards, I learned so much about its parentage, that I 

 :urned it round, to indicate my doubt that its father was a Britisher ! ! ! 

 Later, I heard of the breeding of a magnificent form of Lubricipeda at 

 Barnsley, and wrote a friend there, to look well after all the weedy 

 gardens around for Lubricipeda larvae, which he did, but no varieties were 

 ired ! Then I heard that the larva from which the original Zataminatic 

 brm was bred was collected in Leicestershire, not Yorkshire, and next 

 mthoritatively that it was bred either from larvae sent from London or 

 rom Grimsby ! Later, being an invited guest at the Lancashire and 

 Cheshire Entomological Society, a magnificent pair of what I thought 

 Zatima were exhibited, and later in the evening I was privately told that 

 he specimens had been produced by careful inter-breeding from a 

 pccimen bred accidentally at Barnsley, amongst other ordinary forms. 



I did not, however, ascertain the sex of the single specimen bred, and I 



