25G [November, 



scribed in Mr. Shiiutou's 3Ianual under the names of Dasydia torvaria 

 and Mniopliila cineraria^ to a place in the British Fauna. The 

 conclusions arrived at — forced upon me indeed — are not favourable to 

 those claims. 



Dasybia torvauia, Hiib., tenehmria, Esp. — Mr. Stainton says of 

 this species : " a specimen was taken many j^ears ago at Ballymena, 

 in Ireland, by Mr. Templeton," In the ''■Entomologist's Annual" for 

 1855, p. 39, he quotes Professor Westwood as to this specimen, and 

 adds that it is enumerated under the above name in Stephens' 

 '''Museum Catalogued Professor Westvvood's remarks, in a footnote 

 to page 67 of vol. 2, Humphrey and Westvvood's " British Moths," 

 are as follows : — " Many years ago my friend Templeton showed me 

 a black Geometrideous moth much larger than M. chcsrophyllata, 

 which he had captured on one of the mountains in Ireland, and of 

 which at the time I made a sketch, but which I have unfortunately 

 mislaid. I have seen nothing like the insect in any collection which 

 I have examined. I have since ascertained that the insect is the 

 Cleogene Peletieraria of Duponchel. A reduced co[)y of my sketch 

 will appear in the supplemental plates to the new edition of Wood's 

 '"'' Index Entomologicus.'''' Mr. Stainton goes on to say " whether Mr. 

 Stephens or Mr. Westwood is correct in the name given for this 

 species future observation must decide." 



But, unfortunately, no such future observation appears to have 

 taken place ! Moreover, the specimen taken by Mr. Templeton seems 

 to have disappeared. Mr. G. H. Carpenter, of the Science and Art 

 Museum, Dublin, has obligingly made all possible enquiries for it 

 without result ; Mr. Kane knows nothing of it ; and Mr. Stewart, at 

 the Belfast Museum, reports that it is not there, and that no informa- 

 tion is possessed as to its whereabouts. Nothing remains, therefore, 

 but the reduced figure, in Wood's 2nd edition, of Mr. Westwood's 

 drawing. This figure is scarcely an ornament to the work ; it has 

 blunt, rather rounded wings, slate-grey, without markings except that 

 the nervures and margins are black-brown ; indeed, without taking 

 into account that it is a reduced figure, one would be inclined to guess 

 that it represented one of the black varieties of Fidonia atomaria, 

 except that the antennae are weak and threadlike. 



The genuine D. torvaria, = tenehraria, is a robust looking insect, 

 shaped very much as D. ohfuscaria, of about the same size, and with 

 strongly pectinated antennae in the male ; its ground-colour varies 

 from rich umbreous to brown-black, its first and second transverse 

 lines are black, much indented, and often enclose a band darker than 



