52 



teres de France," 1822) which contained practically the same species 

 with the exception of hera and domiuiila, also found little favour as 

 a suitable genus for mendica. 



Then Stephens (" Illustrations of British Entomology," ii., 1828) 

 took the matter in hand. He created the genus Diaphora expressly 

 for mendica alone, and this was accepted by Wood (1839), Stainton 

 (1857), Kirby ("Catalogue," 1892, and "Handbook," 1897), South 

 ("Moths of the British Isles," 1907), and Seitz (1913). But he 

 also founded the genus Sinloso)iia, placing in it ment/iastri, urticae, 

 and liibricipeda. Herrich-Schaffer (" Systematische Bearbeitung der 

 Schmet. von Eur.," 1845), put mendica in this genus, Spilosdina, 

 along with the last mentioned three species and some others, taking 

 Diaphora as a synonym, and this arrangement was accepted by the 

 great majority of modern authors. But the matter was not yet 

 settled. 



When Meyrick published his " Handbook of British Lepidoptera," 

 in 1895, he based his classification largely on venation, and one must 

 assume that this decided him in taking Hubner's genus Diacrisia for 

 mendica, urticae, ment/iastri, liibricipeda, and riisxnla ; Hampson 

 ("Catalogue of the Arctiadae," 1901) also uses this classification. 

 The association appears to be a natural one, and it is to be hoped may 

 be found to be the correct solution of a much vexed question. 



Variation. 



Variation in mendica takes two very definite directions, in the one 

 it is the colour of the male that is affected, in the other the black 

 spotting of both sexes. In both cases the variation appears to be 

 rather in the nature of local races than chance aberrations, for 

 although occasionally aberrations do occur, ihey are apparently rare. 



The best known local race is rustica, a form in which the male is 

 creamy-white. It was first identified by Hiibner, who twice figured 

 it," SammlungEuropaischer Schmetterlinge," plate 34, fig. 150, and 

 " Beitrage zur Geschichte der Schmetterlinge," ii., iii., ii., fig. H., 

 and at page 64 of this latter work he says, " I first found this moth 

 in the Ukrane, and then also met with it in some other collections 

 in Vienna. In size, shape, and markings it is difficult to separate 

 from mendica, except that its colour is so much lighter, yet only in 

 the male, the female is separated from it only by its wholly black 

 antennae.* I have found no description of it, but from the above 

 and the appended figure, this deficiency will doubtless be remedied." 



"•■• Linnneus, "Fauna Suec," ed. ii., p. 299, no. 1127, says, "Antennae 

 magis fuscae racbi alba." The Kev. F. D. Morice tells me that " rachi " is 

 evidently from a Greek word signifying the backbone of an animal or the petiole 

 of a leaf. The application in this ease appears to be somewhat obscure, but 

 may refer to a few white scales of the mendica female antenna, which do not 

 appear to be present in rnstica. 



