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PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
localities, &c., with a view to ascertain what are really and truly British captures, 
as far as possible. A great deal depends on the veracity of the narrator; and I 
have endeavoured to find out, pro and con, the respectability and dependence to be 
placed on them. Some are careless, and apt to make mistakes as to names, &c.; 
some are fond of notoriety, and of seeing their names in print, &c. The late Mr. 
Sparshall, of Norwich, had a dragon-fly, which he assured me he took himself near 
Norwich. The Baron De Selys tells me that must be a mistake, as it is not even 
European. And, again, of the Arcturus Sparshalli, figured by Mr. Curtis, he gave 
the date and locality, &c. M. Boisduval suspected it was American ; but the 
British Museum now have a pair from Australia! Some are too credulous and 
others too sceptical, especially in London ; and I know even there a little variance 
in opinion, especially when they happen to possess a specimen which before they 
rather doubted. The capture of A. Belia certainly surprised me; but Weaver 
assured me he is quite certain he made no mistake about M. Dia, and that at the 
time he took them he never had a foreign species. Sir Patrick Walker told me 
that he took the H. ligea (of which he had one specimen, and now belongs to 
Samuel Stevens, F.L.S., and two he gave to the late J. F. Stephens, and now in 
British Museum) near Brodick Castle, in the Isle of Arran, and also H. blandina, 
when there grouse-shooting. This is now doubted by some, and one person has 
written to me saying, that ; if Sir P. Walker was now alive, and told him so, he 
would contradict him to his face!’ I had hopes entomologists, in general, were a more 
respectable body. P. Hampstediensis of Petiver is evidently a mistake! Petiver 
himself must have misunderstood the statement respecting it; which is easy to 
suppose arose from Dr. Solander living at Hampstead after his return with Sir 
Joseph Banks, &c. I ventured a suggestion, that he might have shown his speci¬ 
men to Albin and Petiver, and said he took it in the Isle of Amsterdam ; and that 
from the similar names arose the mistake. It and many others that are well 
ascertained, like this, to be erroneous, should be expunged. I have Y. Huntera which 
Captain Blomer took in Wales; Mrs. Blomer also told me she remembered his 
having taken it, and was nearly throwing it away as Y. cardui. He has been 
doubted also by some! I have stated that I believed I once saw P. podalirius 
alive in Cambridgeshire, settled on some rushes, facing the rising sun, with ‘ its 
wings half expanded.’ Some person has stated that I must be mistaken; for I 
could not have known P. podalirius from P. machaon, with ‘ its wings closed .’ I 
fancy, however, on the contrary, that I should know it even with ‘ its wings closed’ 
from Machaon, which is a very old acquaintance of mine, both in this part and also 
in other parts of England. There are other authorities, two of which I have, 
written by their captors. But some deny the whole, and say that one is P. 
Feisthamilii, a native of Spain, &c. Now, that is given in the Stettin Catalogue as a 
variety of P. alexanor, and not of Podalirius, although I am aware Boisduval, &c., 
give it as the last. It would certainly be more satisfactory to have other evidence, 
though Sphinx nerii has been taken in several instances, and I heard of two at 
Sherborne, but have not seen either! 
“ h J. C. Dale.” 
Mr. Haliday showed several Hemipterous insects, with parasites attached, of a 
compressed spheroidal or somewhat reniform figure, embossed with bands of zig-zag 
sculpture, and affixed by one of the lobes of the sinus, which he had observed to 
terminate in connivent valves, somewhat like the operculum of a Balanus. These 
bodies are usually attached to the under side, between the head and prothorax of 
the insect, if of moderate size, as the species of JEvacanthus , one of which, the 
craticula of Curtis, common among rushes, is particularly infested by them. To 
smaller insects, as Typhlocyha , Delphax , &c., they are commonly affixed between 
the segments of the abdomen, under the elytra and wings in winged individuals. 
They appear to grow in size, and the larger ones have been observed to split open 
along the convex face, disclosing a naked apod grub, with horny head, furnished 
with jaws and jointed appendages. He had not succeeded in tracing their further 
development; but some observations made on their structure, led him to conjecture 
that they might be larvae of Diptera, especially the circumstance that the four 
malpighian vessels were united, two and two, into a pair of common ducts before 
