9
dered by the best authorities to be truly British is about 350
species, so that in Epping Forest alone this interesting class is
fairly represented; and if we included the species found in other
parts of the county, and particularly on the coast, the list would
doubtless be considerably increased. I may likewise state
that three specimens of the Great Bustard have recently been
shot in the county. The list of insects of Epping Forest and
other parts of the county includes many rare species. Thus
in the way of beetles, Mr. T. R. Billups, one of our members,
has lately succeeded in capturing at West Ham a species
which had not been met with for nearly seventy years—viz.,
Spercheus emarginatus ; and in the same locality numerous
other rare and local species, such as Xantholinus fulgidus,
Philonthus thermarum, Stenus fornicatus, Quedius puncticollis,
the new Helophorus aequalis, &c. At Loughtou this same
collector has taken the very scarce Euplectus ambiguus. Of
the sixty-seven species of butterflies found in Britain, forty-six
are mentioned by Newman as occurring in Essex, and three
or four more species may possibly be added if search is made
for them in those parts of the county that are on the chalk.
From a list of the larger moths drawn up for me by Mr. Cole,
it appears also that the collector may be rewarded by many
prizes, whilst among the smaller species of Deltoides, Pyralites,
Crambites, Tortrices, and Tineina, I am persuaded that there
is yet a very rich harvest to be gathered in the Forest and
elsewhere in the county. To the lepidopterist, indeed, our
district has already been made famous by the capture of such
species as Erastria venustula by the late Henry Doubleday,
and Sophronia emortualis by Mr. Charles Healy. Epping
Forest has furnished also the rare Gluphisia crenata, the
almost unique Eupithecia egenaria and Stigmonota leguminana,
whilst Mr. Cole last autumn succeeded in adding a very pretty
geometer, Sterrha sacraria, to the list of Essex Lepidoptera.
Then again we have Geometra smaragdaria—the "Essex
Emerald"—a rare moth well known to be a speciality of our
county, found in the low marshes about Southend, St. Osyth,
&c.; and also the extremely local Aleucis pictaria found about
Loughton. With respect to Hymenoptera, I am informed by
Mr. E. A. Fitch, who is an authority on the subject of galls,