Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

THE LATE WILLIAM LENNON 135
in the same field, the late Rev. W. Little, of Kirkpatrick-
Juxta, and others who are yet with us, we now know the
beetle-fauna of the south-west of Scotland as well as any
similar area in Great Britain. It fell to his lot to discover
some half-dozen new beetles, some new to science, others
new to Britain
;
but all of these were added to the lists in
the name of other coleopterists, to whom Mr. Lennon, in
most unselfish way, handed them over. It is within our knowledge
that in the case of some of the species Mr. Lennon's
name was never even mentioned ! One of his discoveries
was Apion cerdo, a little weevil found on purple vetch on the
railway
Hydroporus
banks below Collin.
after summer freshets.
Another was a water-beetle
the
obsoletns found in the flood refuse at Kelton
Although Mr. Lennon's special hobby was beetles, yet
he found time to devote odd days to other departments. A
very rare, and at the time almost unique, capture of his was
a specimen of Eromene ocellca, a crambite moth which came
to his net in a rather curious manner. Passing a window in
the Crichton Institution one night in September 1865, very
late, he saw the moth on the outside of the glass, having
probably been attracted by the light inside. Mr. Lennon
tried to open the window, and found it was fixed. But he
saw the moth was a rarity, and so without any further
hesitation he at once broke the window with his fist and
secured the insect ! He
used to relate with glee that the
authorities made him pay the damage, but he was more than
pleased to do A so. capture of Mr. Lennon's that led to
some little controversy was the finding of what might have
turned out to be a new British butterfly. This was in June
of 1868, and the butterfly was Mclitea didyma. One specimen
only was found, but as its distinctness from other
butterflies taken on the same day was not noticed till a
considerable time afterwards, the new species
has never been
added to the list. At the same time, whether or not there