Acidalia marginepunctata, Qoze. 



By Robert Adkin, F.E.S. Read April lOth, 1919. 



When we look at lengthy series of the species that we have been 

 accustomed to include in the genus Acidalia, as arranged in our 

 cabinets, we at once notice that many of them stand out as abund- 

 antly distinct, but that some of the others have a strong superficial 

 resemblance to one another ; and that individuals of the same 

 species often vary considerably, making their differentiation even 

 more difficult. It is, therefore, not surprising that there should 

 have been some confusion in their nomenclature, more particularly 

 in regard to some of the more variable and possibly less widely 

 known species. The one under notice is no exception in this respect, 

 for which I fear, as will be seen later on, some of our British 

 authors are not entirely blameless. 



Although the species was undoubtedly known to some of the 

 older authors, it was first described by Goze, and named margine- 

 piinctata by him in 1781 (" Entomologische-Beitrage," iii., 3, p. 

 385). Borkhausen, 1794, uses Goze's name, maririitepinictata,(inot- 

 ing that author, and also referring to Roesel's figure, which I shall 

 have occasion to mention again later. (Bork. "Nat. Europ. Schm.," 

 v., p. 250.) 



In or about 1800, Hiibner produced a very good figure of this 

 species, naming it imumtaria (" Sammlung Europaischer Schmet- 

 terlinge," v., f. 108). 



Haworth, in 1810, described it under the name of incanata, quot- 

 ing Hiibner's fig. 108, but erroneously referring it also to Linnaeus' 

 incanata, a species which does not occur in Britain (" Lepidoptera 

 Britannica," p. 350). Stephens, 1828 to 1835, helped further to 

 complicate the matter by using the name niarf/inepiinctata, n. sp., 

 for specimens that he tells us he had seen in the Dale and Haworth 

 collections (" Cat.," 6709), but this name I have failed to find men- 

 tioned in Haworth's work. He repeated Haworth's errors under 

 the name incanata (" Cat.," 6722), while in his " Illustrations" he 

 gives under the name of niarginepnnctata a description that cannot 

 possibly apply to that species, and refers to "Cat.," 6709 ("111. 

 Haust.," vol. iii., p. 310), but omits any mention of incanata. 

 Wood, 1839, under the name mair/inepunctata figures an insect 

 which is certainly not that species, but gives a very fair representa- 

 tion of it as incanata ; he also figures one of the bone-coloured 

 south coast forms under the name of contifjuaria, and tells us that 



