i8sn ] . 49 



June 21st is the latest date on which the first moth has appeared, and none have 

 ever emerged after the middle of July. The retarded emergence shown this year is 

 the more remarkable from the fact that the larv®, all collected on the same day, had 

 of necessity to feed up quickly or not at all, as the only victuals available for them 

 were the leaves and spun shoots of Beta mnritima, in which they were wlien 

 gathered. 



In strange contrast to my own experience was that of my friend Colonel 

 Partridge with G. ocellatella in the past season, as he collected feeding larvae on the 

 same ground in Portland in the latter part of July, and these produced the motha 

 in September ! It is clear, therefore, that, in some cases at any rate, this species is 

 double-brooded ; a most interesting fact of which I was previously in ignoranoe. — 

 Id. 



On Ephentia Roxbui-gkii, Qrer/son.- -In a recent paper in the " Entomologist," 

 Mr. South includes, in a notice of the " Deltoides, Pyralites, and Crambi," intro- 

 duced into the British list within the last thirty years (or more) the name of 

 JEphestia Roxhurghii. It so happens that within the past year I have had oppor- 

 tunities of examining several of the (very few) known specimens of this so-called 

 species : first the original type in Mr. Gregson's collection, now in the possession of 

 Mr. Sydney Webb, at Dover, and more recently those in the collection of Mr. S. J. 

 Capper and the late Mr. N. Cooke, at Liverpool. 



All these specimens are, I am firmly persuaded, merely melanic forms of E. 

 elutella, Hiib., and in this view I am supported by the excellent judgment and 

 experience of Mr. Webb. The original description is somewhat obscure, but one 

 made by M. Eagonot (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xxii, p. 25) is, when the dark colour is 

 omitted, actually an accurate description of elutella : — " Fore-wings broad, costa 

 rounded, colour pale brownish-grey, first line oblique, greyish, hardly paler than the 

 ground colour, second line slender, pale grey, parallel to the hind-margin, slightly 

 sinuous, followed on the costa by a dark streak. Cilia pale brownish-grey, preceded 

 by an indistinct dark line." The addition of, " median space entirely suifused with 

 blackish-brown, in which the discal spots are hardly perceptible," scarcely indicates 

 sufficient character for a distinct species. M. Eagonot seems to have been somewhat 

 misled by a superficial resemblance in the insect to Cryptoblabes bistriga, though 

 his careful scientific examination of the specimen brought it back to its real place, 

 or very nearly. If the intermediate shades of variation had been before him he 

 would doubtless have recognised it as elutella. 



It is a curious circumstance with this elutella, that besides its wide range of 

 colour — whitish-grey, pale grey, pale yellowish, half grey and half ochreous, and 

 various shades of slate colour and dark grey — it is also most unstable in the position 

 and direction of its transverse lines, and in this form called Roxhurghii the aberration 

 is rather decided, the first line being quite oblique and rather straight ; but the 

 comparative straightness arises from the absence of the usual dark indentations 

 which have become invisible, and in this respebt, and in the position of the line, the 

 species shows a range of variation exteniling to that in which the first line is 

 perpendicular. The form of the costal margin, in which elutella seems to dififer 

 from all its allies, is, however, most constant. — Chas. G. Barkktt, Linden Grove 

 Nunhead, S.E. : January, 1891. 



