360 XOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIV. 1917. 



70. Clisiocampa neustria flavescens 'Griinb.). 



ilalaajsoma neustria flavescens Griinborg in Seitz, Grossschm. Erde, p. 151 (1911) (.Algeria). 



The only place from which the Tring Museum has received this species is 

 Masscr Mines. 



4 cJo, 1 $ Masser Mines, June 1914, Faioult. 



77. Malacosoma alpicola lutea (Obcrth.). 



Bombijx luieus Oberthiir, Etiid. Entom. liv. iii. p. 44 (187S) (El May Oran). 



Mr. Oberthiir has told us, from material in his collection, that he finds West 

 Algerian and East Algerian ?V of hdeu more or less alike, while the otJ are very 

 distinct ; the East Algerian qS being dark with two hght discal transverse lines, 

 while the West Algerian o(J are light with two dark discal transverse lines. From 

 this it appears that Mr. Oberthiu-'s experience has been different from mine, else he 

 woidd have realised that the problem of the .Mauretanian representatives of the 

 European franconica-alpicola group of moths was a very different one from what 

 he thought. In 1912 Dr. Jordan and I collected a large number of larvae of these 

 insects at Khenchela and in 1913 Faroult did the same at Guelt-es-Stel. Of 

 both lots many larvae died before spinning up and pupating, and of the rest the 

 largest number died or the imagines got spoilt owing to our very rough journeys 

 home. However, I succeeded in breeding 3 <J(J and 1 ? from Guelt-es-Stel and 

 4 o(J and 4 $? from Khenchela. In 1914 Faroult sent me some cocoons of these 

 insects from Boghari, from which 5 o<3 and 1 5 emerged. The resulting insects 

 form a most interesting series : 4 o(J and 1 ? from Boghari and the 3 o(J and 

 1 ? from Guelt-es-Stel and 1 $ from Lambessa are typical lutea, ie. tlie (J(J 

 have the disc of the forewings cream-yellow with the two transverse hnes mauve- 

 brown, and the ?? are entirely rich golden yellow ; the 1 S from Boghari and 

 4 0(J from Khenchela have the disc of the forewings mauve-bro\\ii, with the two 

 transverse lines cream-yellow ; the ?$, however, also sho^\• a great difference — 

 two of these ?? are liver-brown, washed -nith oUvaceous or greenish and with an 

 indistinct yellowish transverse band, the remaining two are blackish chocolate- 

 brown. Before reading Mr. Oberthiir's article I had determined in my own mind 

 that I was dealing with two distinct races of one species, but after reading his 

 article and looking up his previous works on the subject, I carefully re-examined 

 my nineteen specimens, and I was at once struck by three points: first, Mr. 

 Oberthiir had got typical lutea ?? from Khenchela and Lambessa and a typical 

 lutea o from Biskra ; secondly, I had got dark SS and S? quite unlike typical 

 lutea from Khenchela ; and thirdly, I had got three typical lutea Jo from Boghari 

 and one dark (J similar to those from Khenchela. The fact thus demonstrated 

 that typical lutea as well as dark-coloured examples occurred at Boghari and 

 Khenchela clearly proved that what we were dealing with were not two local 

 races of one species, as two local races of the same species cannot occur together 

 in one place. Therefore we had either a case of dimorphism to deal with or the 

 dark and light examples were specimens of two distinct species. This question 

 can only be decided by the examination of the genitalia or by breeding both dark 

 and light individuals from eggs laid by a single $. 



Pending such decision, I prefer to keep them as separate species, one repre- 



