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XY. 
NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE 
IN THE YEAR 1903. 
By A. E. Gibbs, F.L.S., F.R.H.S. 
Read at Watford , 29th March, 1904. 
It is satisfactory, at tlie close of a season which has proved so 
disappointing from an entomologist’s point of view, to be able to 
announce the addition to our county list of no less than nine species 
of Lepidoptera—seven of them being macros. It is true that these 
records cannot all be credited to 1903, but they come to hand 
opportunely, and the majority of them are the result of last season’s 
work. This addition raises the total number of species on our list 
to 1,158. 
1 am pleased to report that I have secured the co-operation of 
an observer at Hitchin, in a district of the county possessing a rich 
insect fauna, but which has been much neglected so far as our 
annual reports are concerned since the death of that old and valued 
correspondent, and painstaking and observant naturalist, Mr. Erank 
Latchmore. Our new observer, Mr. A. H. Foster, of The Grange, 
Hitchin, who, I am glad to say, has become a member of the Society, 
has sent to me some valuable notes, and five of the new records 
have been supplied by him. Of the remaining four, Mr. A. H. 
Goodson, of Tring, has contributed two; Miss Alice Dickinson, of 
New Farm, St. Albans, one; and Mr. P. J. Barraud, of Bushey 
Heath, one. 
The species new to our list are :— 
1. Tapinostola Hellmanni , Evers. Hitchin. A. H. Foster. 
One example of this species came to light at Mr. Foster’s 
residence, The Grange, Hitchin, at about 12 o’clock midnight, and 
being an unexpected capture he was at some pains to get its 
identification confirmed. It has been submitted to Mr. C. G. Barrett, 
one of our best authorities on Lepidoptera, and he pronounces it 
to he correctly named. While looking through an old collection 
made by Mr. William Hill, of Hitchin, Mr. Foster discovered four 
other examples of T. Hellmanni and also specimens of Leueania 
albovenosa and Calamia phragmitidis, which Mr. Hill believes were 
taken locally, but he is not sufficiently certain to permit them to 
be recorded. He has indicated the locality in which he thinks 
they occurred, and Mr. Foster has undertaken to make further 
investigations during the coming season. The chief home of 
T. Hellmanni in our Islands is the Fen district of Cambridgeshire 
and Huntingdonshire, and it is not altogether to be wondered at 
that it should find its way to damp spots in those parts of our 
county which lie on the Cambridgeshire border. 
2. Mamestra furva, Hb. Hitchin. A. H. Foster. 
This was taken at light in the house by Mr. Foster in 1902, and 
was at first supposed to be M. brassicce. The specimen has been 
