1912.] 123 



tliroiigli all its forms it may be distiiiguislied from any other of the 

 strongly sculptured species by the longer and straighter posterior 

 tibial spur ; the dark linear elytral markings, nearly always more or 

 less obvious, are also characteristic ; and it feeds on a different plant 

 {Verbascicm) from any of them. 



Food plants.— " Diverses especes de Verbascti7n'" (Foudras), 

 Verhascum (Allard). We have taken it in some numbers from 

 V. thapsus on Box Hill, Surrey, but we are quite disposed to believe 

 that it may occur on other plants and, as we have previously suggested, 

 a different food-plant may to some extent imply a different form of 

 the species. 



Its range is uncertain, but it undoubtedly occurs not uncommonly 

 in the South of England, and Mr. F. H. Day has taken it near Carlisle. 



Ydiw—distingiiendvs, Rye [Ent. Mo. Mag. IX, p 157 (1872)]. 



In a species whose morphology is so unstable as this, it appears 

 as impossible as it would be futile to single out each special form by a 

 separate varietal name, but assuming the larger darker insect which 

 we find on Verhascmn to be the " type," it is certainly convenient to 

 retain the name disting tiendus for the form so described as a species 

 by E. C. Rye. It is certainly suificiently dissimilar not only to have 

 been described by so experienced a student but to have been accepted 

 ever since as of specific value, and it is only by careful comparison 

 between individuals of a long series that the gradation of form becomes 

 so apparent as to lead to the conviction of their essential unity. 



L. distinguendus'^^^ as represented in our collections is generally 

 rather smaller and paler than typical L. nirirofasciat us, with the thorax 

 more or less testaceous, and the linear dark elytral markings, although 

 nearly always more or less indicated, are weaker, but the long tibial 

 spur is constant in every form. The long and stout antennae, a 

 character insisted on by Rye in his description, are common to all 

 variations of the species which we have seen, but it is evident from the 

 assertion of Rye that his insect much resembled L. atricillus that his 

 exponents included some of the darker forms approaching typical 

 L. nigrofasciatus. He also states it to be apterous. Senecio jacobasa, 

 Teucriuni scorodonia, and Scrojjliularia nodosa have been recorded as 

 food plants of this variety, but we have taken specimens on Verbascum 

 in company with the type-form which are indistinguishable from 

 Rye's lighter examples. 



(li Bedel, I'eferriiig to L. (listiayiundas, Rye, says: " II est surtout voisiu de I'insecte decrit 

 par Allard sous le noiii de '' patruelis" (vari6te de niyrofasciatus, No. 33) [Col. Bass. Seine, V, 

 p. 313]. 



K 2 



