Hudson. — On Declana floccosa. 191 



With respect to the normal type of Declana floccosa, it is 

 extremely hard to say much, as the several varieties do not 

 contain any characters common to all of them, although, in 

 many instances, the same markings can be recognised in 

 several different forms. Thus we have nothing deiinite which 

 can be said to form the basis of the species ; our only course, 

 therefore, is to take the simplest form, and regard that as the 

 type. PI. ix., figs. 7 and 8, represent this form. The follow- 

 ing is a brief description : Front wings pale greyish white 

 covered with numerous brownish-black streaks, exhibiting a 

 slight concentration towards the tip of the wing, but varying 

 much in intensity (compare figs. 7 and 8). Hindwings buff- 

 coloured, sliaded with pale brown towards their exterior mar- 

 gins. Next in order to this most simple form is the variety 

 depicted at fig. 1, which exhibits several large round spots on 

 the disc of the front wing, the minute streaks being decidedly 

 concentrated on the hindmargin, and leaving the central 

 portion of the wing considerably x^aler in colour than in the 

 usual type. From this form we wdll now pass to an insect 

 which was long known as Declana nigrosparsa, from the 

 numerous black spots ornamenting its front wings. It is a 

 tolerably common and easily recognised variety (fig. 4). 



PI. ix., fig. 2, represents another very characteristic form of 

 D. floccosa, distinguished from the type by the two conspicuous 

 stripes which cross the forewings from the costa to the inner 

 margin ; one being situated near the thorax, and the other at 

 about two-thirds of the distance towards the hindmargin, this 

 latter being doubly curved. A further development of this 

 form is drawn at fig. 5, where these two stripes are joined 

 together, near the middle, by two lines running parallel with 

 the hindmargin and costa of the wing. These two varieties 

 v^ere described under the name of Declana junctilinea, Mr. 

 Meyrick having subsequently shown in his paper on the New 

 Zealand Geometrina,''= that they were inadmissible as species. 

 A form combining the characters of nigrosparsa and junctilinea 

 is shown at fig. 3, where we have both the curved lines and 

 numerous black spots. Finally, we have a most conspicuous 

 form (fig. 6) , showing the greatest deviation from the original 

 type, where the frontwings are entirely suffused wdth dark 

 greyish-black, except tvv^o broad bands of the original light 

 colour extending from the costa to the inner margin. The 

 base and hindmargin of the posterior wings are also much 

 suffused with dark-grey, leaving a broad ill-defined band of 

 lighter colour across the middle of the wing. 



Taking now a general view of these varieties it is mani- 

 festly impossible to regard them as constituting more than a 



Trans. N.Z. Inst.," vol. xvi., p. 49. 



