Septemljer, 1900] 193 



NOTE ON THE PJITHOROBLASTIS JULIANA, Cut., OF 



STAUDINGER'S CATALOG. 



BV THE RIGHT HON. LORD WALSINGHAM, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. 



PAMMENE, Hb. 

 1194. JULIANA, Crt. 



1194 (1). NIMBANA, H.-S. 



These two species are included under the name Phthoroblastis 

 Juliana, Crt , in Staudinger's Catalog, and I find that Zeller regarded 

 them as mere varieties of one species. In 1869 Dr. Knaggs sent to 

 Prof. Zeller a specimen which I had given him. The following ex- 

 tract from the reply received sots forth his opinion on the subject : — 

 " la, ? variety of Phtliorohlastis Juliana, the passages from which to 

 it I have caught myself on beech trees ; a constant mark of this 

 species is the three black lineol^e on yellow ground placed before and 

 contiguous to the first metallic-blue transverse line. The white costal 

 strigulae are in this specimen thronged together ; but even in that the 

 species offers some variability. Nimhana, H.-S., belongs to Juliana, 

 as a slight deviation, and Heinemann (Wickler, pp. 200—1) seems to 

 me to be quite wrong in describing the species in its varieties as two 

 species yw7^rt?^a and nimbana." Zell., i. I., 29, VI, 1869. 



The specimen sent was one of a series of about forty bred by 

 me from hibernating larvae and pupae found in silken cocoons under 

 a small, dark, button-like moss on the trunks of beech trees near 

 Little Kimble (Bucks). These showed little or no variation, nor did 

 I find in that locality any specimen approaching the normal form of 

 Juliana in the pattern of its markings. 



Moreover, in localities where Juliana is abundant, I am informed 

 that it shows no tendency to vary in the direction of nimhana. 



These two species should certainly be regarded as distinct. 



Mr. Meyrick, in his Handbook of British Lepidoptera, 515—16 

 (1895), removed these two species from the genus Phthorollastis, Ld., 

 to Carpocapsa, Tr. 



In the same work he describes the structural characters, Cydia, 

 Hb. (== Carpocapsa, Tr., Meyr.) : " ^ with longitudinal groove below 

 cell" (in hind-wings) "including a hair-pencil." This character is 

 not possessed by either nimhana, H.-S., ov Juliana, Crt. 



He describes the neuration of Pammene, Hb. (= Phthoroblastis, 

 Ld.), I. c, 505, as being characterized by the hind-wing in the ^ 

 having "7 running into 8 soon after origin." This character is pos- 

 sessed by both the above species, which must therefore be restored to 

 their former positions as above. 



Merton Hall, Thetford : 

 June, 1900. 



