THE ENTOMOLOGISTS 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 139.] SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 18S 9 [Price Id. 
ERRORS. 
Errors are a great nuisance; but it 
is not possible to avoid tbem entirely. 
-At least, if we only speak that which 
we know for positive certain , our words 
must be few and far between. 
We open at random a volume of 
the ‘Insecta Britannica’ (that on Lepi- 
doptera), and we there find it stated, 
at p. 212, that “ cases of Coleophora 
ochrea have been found on seeds of 
Potentilla argenlea." Now if any one 
■were to conclude from this sentence 
that the larvae of Ochrea feed on the 
Potentilla , he would make a grievous 
mistake, as we all very well know now- 
a-days that these larvae are patrons of 
the leaves of Helianthemum vulgare. 
How the error arose we do not know ; 
whether dried plants of Helianthemum 
were mistaken for the Potentilla , or 
whether the full-fed larvae had crawled 
off the one plant on to the olher, are 
points which will probably never be 
elucidated. Errors of this kind are 
unfortunately only too easily com- 
mitted. 
Referring to the same volume, we 
may here call attention to the circum- 
stance that probably neither Nemophora 
Carteri nor Argyresthia decimella are 
truly British insects. The precise lo- 
cality of the former is unknown, but 
the latter has a well-authenticated cer- 
tificate of capture, and our theory with 
regard to it is that it had probably 
been bred from some imported plant 
which had been placed in a greenhouse 
at Camberwell, in the spring of 1850 . 
In the volume of the ‘ Manual of 
British Butterflies and Moths ’ now 
going through the press both these 
species will disappear from the British 
lists. 
Mr. Doubleday has called our atten- 
tion to similar accidental introductions 
of non-British species in the list of 
Noctuse, as we are now informed that 
Opigena fennica and Hydrilla palustris 
never were taken here, but that speci- 
mens captured in Lapland by Mr. 
Walker were sold in London, and after- 
wards mysteriously effected an entree 
into provincial collections. 
The occurrence of an insect here is 
in the first place looked upon as evi- 
dence that it is British ; but when, 
after many years, it does not again 
occur, a suspicion is apt to arise that 
the specimen had been accidentally 
c 
