The Scottish Naturalist. m 



SOME NOTES ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF OPORABIA. 

 By F. BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D., F.L.S. 



HAVING recently had occasion to examine a large ISeries 

 of the moths belonging to the genus Oporabia Stph., 

 I i^urpose giving here a short account of the result of my in- 

 vestigations. 



In the earliest catalogue of British insects to which at 

 present I have access, viz., Curtis' " Guide," published in 1829, 

 one species only — dilutata — is mentioned, and given as the 

 type of an unnamed new genus. 



In the next work before me — Humphreys and Westwood's 

 " British Moths," vol. ii., 1845 — a second species is given, 

 but erroneously referred X.o polata Hb. 



Westwood, in the revised edition of Wood's •' Index Entomo- 

 logicus," gives, in addition to dilutata^ filigravimaria and 

 autiunnaria, to the latter of which he refers the O. polata of 

 his " British Moths." 



In the list of " New British Species of Lepidoptera since 

 1835" in the "Entomologist's Annual" for 1855, are the 

 following remarks by Mr. Stainton, the editor, pp. 41, 42 : — 



" Oporabia autumnaria Boisd., enumerated as British in 

 Doubleday's Catalogue, at p. 18. Its capture is recorded 

 by Mr. Weaver in the 'Zoologist' for 1852, p. 3495. 'It 

 rests on the branches of birch. I captured a few speci- 

 mens in Perthshire in 1851, and found it very sparingly 

 in previous seasons.' Mr. Weaver says — ' This species is 

 readily distinguished from O. negledata and dilutata by the 

 glossy silver and fineness of the wings, and the slenderness of 

 antennae.' For m.y own part, I have never been able to satisfy 

 myself that it was specifically distinct from O. dilutata. Opor- 

 abia negledata^ which is also noticed by Mr. Weaver in the 

 " Zoologist," at p. 3496, and is enumerated as a distinct species 

 in Stephen's " Museum Catalogue," but I am not aware that its 

 claim to be considered a species has yet been satisfactorily 

 established. 



'' Oporabia filigrammaria Boisd. ; the capture of this species 

 in this country was first recorded by Mr. Edleston, in the 

 *' Entomologist," at p. 356, under the name oi O. polata, under 

 which name it is figured and described in Humphreys and 

 Westwood's " British Moths," vol. ii., p. 56, pi. Ixix., fig. 9. 

 Many specimens have been taken in the north of England and 



