14 



Noctua. — Haworthi, Curtis. There is a specimen in the Linnean Cabinet, 

 marked " Angl., D. Jones, unknown." — Prcecox, in Linnean Cabinet, marked 

 "Portland Island, Allen." — Citrina ? in Linnean Cabinet, marked "Noctua 

 mucronea, B. Clark: Suff., Kirby, 1797; rariss." — Siona dealbata, near 

 Lang-port, June, 1835 ; Mr. Quekett. — Arcturus : Mr. Westwood says that 

 Mr. Curtis's genus Arcturus must be rejected, having been previously used by 

 Latreille, to distinguish a genus of Crustacea. (Perhaps Latreille's genus Arc- 

 turus may fall also, being used in Astronomy ; and Stephens's Janus has been 

 used by Kirby and Spence). But what will be gained by its being changed ? 

 Can a Moth ever be confounded with a Crab f The name Colias, a genus of 

 Butter/lies, was previously used for a genus of Fishes, I believe, and yet it is con- 

 tinued by all ; and perhaps neither may stand eventually, by the perpetual chang- 

 ing of systems. Agabus is used for a genus of Water Beetles, but its proper sig- 

 nification is a Locust ! ! 



Again ; Mr. Curtis is said to have placed Acentria at col. 137 of his Guide, 

 at the end of Trichoptera. Mr. Curtis not being sure that Acentropus was iden- 

 tical, of course gave another name, similar however, and, in the Guide, places it 

 just before Lepidoptera, one of which Mr. Westwood considers it. Mr. Curtis's 

 arguments have more weight with me that it is Trichopterous ; and they both 

 agree that Stephens is wrong in putting it in the Neuroptera. 



Moses Harris, in his Vade Mecum, mentions his having seen an JEgeria on 

 a flower, in Norwood. JEgeria ichneumoniformis I found an hermaphrodite 

 specimen of, near Lulworth, on the 6th of July last ; August 5th and 1 1th, I 

 found several at Carisbroke Castle, varying much in size. The small variety is 

 figured by Mr. Wood as a new species, and named Muscceformis. Mr. Rudd took 

 a very large and magnificent specimen on the 1 1th, which shews it was not too late, 

 although several were much faded ; I also took one near Niton, on the 8th. The 

 late Captain Blomer observed that they vary in size, and he found them in plenty 

 near Teignmouth, settled on rocks from June 29 to the end of July. Some I 

 observed were fond of the Ononis : they seemed partial to the neighbourhood of 

 the sea. JEgeria vespiformis, (Curtis), I took in plenty, the end of May and 

 beginning of June, in Clapham Park Woods, Bedfordshire : the first I saw was 

 on a leaf of burdock ; but I afterwards found the larvae and pupae under the bark 

 of the stumps of oaks, and found them in every stage at the same time. Mr. 

 Rudd took one in the New Forest the end of May, 1834 ; and I saw one the 

 beginning of August, 1835, hovering over an oak stump there, but lost it ; a cloud 

 passing over the sun at the same time. Hypogymna dispar, found on the Turf 

 Moor, near Shapwick, Somerset. In the Linnean Cabinet I observed a Moth 

 allied to the genus Spilosoma, or Arctia. Whitish, or speckled slightly with 

 black, and rather transparent, from Mr. Hudson ; but it is not noticed as British 

 in any book I have seen : the antennae are too much pectinated for it to belong to 



