1901.] 149 



bail gai'den near Birmingham ; I observed at the time that the sijeciineu was not 

 exactly typical, and it has only been quite recently that I have examined it more 

 closely. Mr. G-. T. Bethune-Baker suggested to me that it was probably the variety 

 polarix* and upon comparing it with specimens in his collection I found it agreed, 

 fairly well with it. Mr. Barrett has subsequently informed nie lliat lie considers 

 the true polaris (as defined by Kane) to be that form in which the wings are very 

 dusky and the inner marginal spot completely joined by a black band to the costal 

 one ; my form has the dark borders to the wings more heavily pronounced than is 

 usual, and the band between the inner marginal and costal spots merely represented 

 by a dark tract of pigmental scales, which, however, are more [iruminently de- 

 veloped upon the inferior surface of the wings, and I think the insect may be looked 

 upon as intermediate between the constant northern form polaris and (he type. 

 Mr. Barrett has also informed me that it is by no means an uncommon variety in 

 Britain, and I thought it would bo worth while recording il, so that perhaps in 

 course of time some light might be thrown upon its distribution, if observers in 

 different parts of the country would pubiisli notes ujjon its occurrence in their own 

 districts. I might suggest that the variety is perhaps the result of the larva having 

 selected some unusual situation (damp or otherwise) wherein to pupate. An in- 

 teresting figure for comparison is that named var. ii in Newman. — A. D. Imms, 

 Lindhurst, Oxford Koad, Moseley, near Birmingham : April, I'JOl. 



Melanism in Larentia multistrigaria. — Another Lepidopteron which seems to 

 be rapidly becoming melanic in this district is Larentia iiiultistrigaria. iSome six 

 years or so ago an odd black specimen occasionally occurred, and since then the 

 form has been found in gradually increasing numbers. Last month, from the 18tli 

 to 24th, short searches on two or three evenings by Mr. W. Tunstall and myself in 

 an old hilly meadow near this house produced about a dozen or more of the black 

 form, representing perhaps twenty per cent, of the specimens seen. It should be 

 added, however, that the form had occurred very long ago, because I distinctly re- 

 member the late Mr. James Varley, of this town, telling me, probably more than 

 thirty years ago, that the late Mr. Henry Doubleday had written that he had bred 

 a black mullistrigaria from a batch of eggs he (Varley) had sent him. Probably 

 the specimen still exists in the series in the Doubleday Collection in the Bethnal 

 Green Museum. — Geo. T. Pokkitt, C'rosland Hall, near tluddersficld : Mai/ I'Mk^ 



lyoi. 



Note on Metzneria UUorella,DgL — The late S.Stevens' specimens of Metzneria 

 littorella appear, from the pinholes in his cabinet, to have been six in number. Of 

 these he gave one to me, one to Mr. Hodgkinson as correctly surmised by Mr. 

 Bankes, and a third (of which I do not know the present owner) to I think Mr. 

 Vaughan, who, as he did not attend to Tineina, would naturally give it away to 

 some one else. The remaining three were sold at Stevens' sale, and are now before 

 me exactly as they stood in his cabinet. Had Mr. Bankes' note been delayed any 

 longer in publication I could not have told how many specimens Mr. Stevens 

 actually possessed, but it just so happens to be the only drawer of his Micro cabinet 



* Staudinger Cat., p. 16, 1871 ; also Stett. Ent. Zeit., 1861, p, 345. 



