Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/140

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112
Insects.

I have before said that Zinken evidently did not know that his insect was the Erycina Curius of Godart, but imagined it to be a perfectly new insect. This is the more probable, as many of the insects described in this paper belong to old and well-known species, to which he has given new names.

London, February, 1843.


Note on Lepidopterous Insects captured at Manchester. With the assistance of a few friends I am enabled to send you a list of the Lepidoptera that have been captured within fifteen miles of Manchester, and hope other entomologists will favor us with a list of their Fauna. That local lists are highly interesting and useful to an entomologist, needs no proof.

The diurnal Lepidoptera, on the average, are very rare; such species as Gonepteryx Rhamni, Argynnis Paphia, Arg. Adippe, Vanessa C -album, Van. Polychloros, Thecla Quercûs, Polyommatus Alsus and Pol. Argiolus, so common a little further south, are here seldom seen, but why it is so I cannot account for. Hipparchia Davus, met with in abundance on the mosses, is very variable; Hip. Typhon and Hip. Polydama are varieties of this insect. Polyommatus Argus is local on Chat-moss, and is also variable, some specimens approaching very near to Pol. Agestis. Again, Bupalus favillacearius is scarcely half the size, and considerably darker than those captured in Hampshire, for specimens of which I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Dale of Dorset: the same is the case with several other insects taken here.

The mosses are the favourite localities with us entomologists; some of our rarest insects have been captured on them. Ashton-moss is cultivated, and White-moss is in process; but fortunately for the "brethren of the net," many years must elapse ere such extensive tracts as Chat and Carrington are drained.—Robert S. Edleston; Cheetham, Manchester, January 17, 1843.

[We doubt the expediency of printing lists of insects unaccompanied by notes, because the majority of the species thus enumerated occur in every county of the United Kingdom, and the lists therefore want to be carefully looked through, and the universally distributed species struck out, before they can be made useful. Mr. Edleston's list contains a number of rarities, for instance, Deilephila Galii and Deil. Li vomica, a few words about which would be more interesting than a column of such names as Pontia Brassicæ, Rapæ, Napi, &c. In this however our only desire is to consult the wishes of our correspondents, and we hope those distinguished entomologists whose