65 



JUNE 2ith, 1920. 



Mr. Ply. J. Turner exhibited a varied series of Hythiomena 

 f areata, Thun. [Hi/psipetefi eliitata, Ilh. = sordidata, Fab.), and also 

 a copy of Thunberg's "Dlssertationes" (1784), in which the species 

 was first described and figured. He said that the species had been 

 dealt with from most points of view by Mr. Prout, in 1906, in a 

 paper read at the North London Nat. Hist. Soc, and published in 

 the " Ent, Record," vol. ix., p. 84, et seq. He gave the following 

 summary of the variation and tabulation of the named forms. 



Lines of Variation. — I. Size. — Considerable variation. Bil- 

 berry and heath fed larvte invariably produce small imagines ; 

 sallow fed larvfe in moist situations usually produce full-sized speci- 

 mens. Bred specimens are often small unless the larvae be sleeved, 

 possibly owing to the larval habit of spinning leaves together. 

 IL Cohnir. — Very variable. The small moorland forms are, as a 

 rule, the more varied, often very prettily tinged with red or yellowish 

 brown. The lowland forms are more frequently dirty greenish. 

 The ground may be light green, yellowish green, darl<; green, brown 

 green, purplish green, cinerous, fuscous, or nearly black. This is 

 crossed transversely from the costa by about half a dozen irregular 

 dark lines, often interrupted and abbreviated, almost always strongly 

 marked on the costa, but dwindling to complete absence on the 

 inner margin in many cases. These lines are not apparent, of course, 

 on the dark ground specimens which are practically uniform in 

 coloration. In detail these lines are (1) basal, slender, angled, 

 abbreviated, l)lack. (2) The first line, often obscure or broken up 

 into parts, rather broad, purple-black. (3) Similar line close fol- 

 lowing, (i.) Stripe of pale clouding, broken into blotches. (5) The 

 "second line," incomplete, sinuous, black. (6) Similar to the last, 

 expands to a broad blotch, sharply angled, which angle has a black 

 dash going to apex, then ill-defined and almost absorbed by a 

 roundish whitish blotch about the middle of the hind margin, a 

 very constant feature of the species, then continuing in a slender 

 line. Between lines 4 and 6, which vary in relative position, there 

 is a tendency to have a wide clear band of the ground colour, which 

 often becomes light in shade, the form albofasciata. The hind 

 margin has numerous fine black dots in pairs. 



Named forms. — This very variable, generall}' distributed and 

 common species has received a number of names from various 

 authors, especially the older ones, some still perhaps only in the 

 position of probability, such as miata, Hufn., reclaitf/idata, Fab., and 



