58 
ORGYIA GONOSTIGMA. 
(Read March 21st, 1905, by Rev. C. R. N. BURROWS.) 
I feel that I ought, in the first place, to apologise for the alteration 
in the subject which I had promised to bring to your notice this 
evening. The real fact of the matter is that I have found my eyesight 
so much altered of late that I am unable to make use of the microscope 
for the minute drawings necessary for my promised paper on H. strigata, 
a species which would, to my mind, give very little matter for study, 
except upon the lines which I have tried to follow of late years. To 
some, perhaps, this may prove a matter of relief, but to me it is a great 
disappointment, and I cannot help hoping that I may yet be able to 
continue the examination of the young larvas of the Emeralds, and 
perhaps complete what has been to me a matter of intense interest. 
However, H. strigata failing me, I felt sorry to disappoint the 
Secretaries after their energetic efforts to fill up the programme 
for the season, and therefore promised to offer a few notes upon a 
species which is of interest to most collectors, and which I have been 
fortunate enough to be in a position to study somewhat closely. Orgyia 
gonostigma came before me informally, within the first year of my 
residence at Brentwood (1884). I have not the date, but being out 
with my lantern one evening my eye fell upon a something which my 
mind recognised as a male specimen of this insect, while my common 
sense seemed to refuse consent, and I went on half wondering, half 
doubting. Of course I should have looked again, but I did not, so con¬ 
vinced was I that the mental impression was false. But some time 
later in the season I called in to see Thomas Eedle, who had been living 
in my former parish for a good many years, and who was, therefore, an 
old friend and entomological confidant. Said he, “Have you come across 
gonostigma yet?” No! I had not. “Oh! said he, “ well! Brentwood 
is just the place I should expect to find it.” This conversation set me 
thinking, and, of course, regretting. However, I waited my time and 
proved during the rest of my residence in those parts that the hint 
was really a confidential present of what appears to have been then a 
somewhat close secret. I suppose the Brentwood locality is no secret 
now, but whether or no, there is no reason against the publication, as 
the insect has been so scarce of late years that the hardest work seems 
to have been very ill paid to those who have tried to collect specimens. 
The real point of my remarks to-night is, as I have been good 
naturedly charged with intending, the hope that I may elicit information 
as to the occurrence of what is generally considered an exceedingly 
local species. Is 0. gonostigma as local and as rare as is commonly 
thought ? There are a great many records of localities in magazines of 
late years, and I have gathered together such as I have been able. 
Coventry. — Entom., 1874, p. 204, 226, 227. 
Bexley. — Entom. Record, 1898, p. 277 ; 1899, p. 278. 
Sherwood E'orest. — Entom. Record, 1900, p. 250. 
