2Q4 [September, 



P. faseiatus : it appears that the rather unsatisfactory name 

 " melanocephalus " claims priority ; it is, however, a case in which the 

 present very distinctive name ought not to be superseded. 



It is probably only by breeding that the known species of male 

 and female can be correctly paired ; but it would be of great utility 

 and interest if one could procure details of the experiments which 

 form the basis of Thomson's pairings in his " Opuscula Eiitomologia," 

 where the descriptions are far too brief to be of much use. We are 

 sure that Mr. Morley's new tabulation of this intricate genus, on the 

 comparative length of the auteunal joints, gives the species the most 

 natural sequence, and is much the most easy to follow that has yet 

 been enunciated ; in its practice one can distinctly see outlines of 

 his proposed subgenera. 



16, lielsize Grove, Hampsfead : 

 August, 1907. 



OLYPHIPTERYX THRASONELLA, Scop., ab. NITENS, n. ab. 

 BY EUSTACE E. BANKES, M.A., F.E.S. 



This beautiful aberration differs from the tyi)ical form in having 

 the terminal |)ortion of the fore-wing more or less completely occupied 

 by a large brightly-metallic iridescent blotch, which embraces, to a 

 greater or less extent, the metallic streaks and spots that usually adorn 

 the wing posteriorly. The blotch may obviously vary somewhat in 

 the colours it displays, just as do the typical costal streaks and tornal 

 spots, but in the three individuals before me, which are all males, the 

 principal hues to be seen are gold, blue, green, and violet, each of 

 which ap[)ears to prevail in some portion of the blotch, though they 

 merge into one another. 



That ab. nitc?is, of which my earliest capture was made in a wet 

 withybed near Bloxworth, E. Dorset, on May 30th, 1905, is a recur- 

 rent form is clear from the fact that I took, in the same heath-bog 

 near here, one example of it on July 8th, 1905, and another on July 

 15th of this year, and doubtless special work for it, which has not yet 

 been attempted, would have yielded others. It is the opposite extreme 

 from ab. cladiella, Stn., in which the typical metallic streaks are 

 obsolete. 



Nordeii, Corfc Castle : 



July 25th, 1907. 



