54 [March, 



or thiit, and then the difllculty ceases. (N.B.— These zigzags in tlie " veins" seem 

 to be coniieeted with differences of direction in the " nerves " whieli meet tlieni, e./;., 

 a radius or cubitus is often sharply angled exactly at the point when a cubital 

 nerve falls upon it, and so the niedius is regularly angled at the point where the anal 

 nerve pi-oceeds from it). In several Genera curious and at first )nizzling deflections 

 of the radius or cubitus may be observed {Sire.v, Fenusa, &c.). 



(5) It should be noted that the crumpling of the wings to which dried speci- 

 mens are so liable often quite distorts the apparent course both of veins and nerves, 

 and may lead a hasty observer into error. Thus, nerves may look interstitial in a 

 particular aspect without being so really, and a humeral area may look jietiolate be- 

 cause tlse humerus has got elose against the braehius owing to a shrivelling up 

 of the anal and humeral areas. It is necessary to be constantly on one's guard 

 against such illusions. The transparency of certain nervures is another source of 

 error to beginners. Thus, a Hoplocampa's " contracted humeral area " can easily be 

 misinterpreted as " petiolate ;" or a pale transverse intercostal nerve be overlooked 

 and supposed to be absent. 



(6) It can hardly be repeated too often that the nerves of the radial and cubital 

 areas are especially inconstant, and therefore that, though it is impossible to leave 

 them out of account, the less we rely upon their characters tiie better. It is, I 

 think, much to be regretted that Mr. Cameron's Tables of Genera should bring these 

 characters into such extreme prominence. I, for one, have been led by them to 

 waste hours of fruitless enquiry over slightly abnormal specimens of well-known 

 insects, which I sliould now recognise by other characters at a glance. 



LEPIDOPTERA IN SOUTHERN SPAIN DURING THE LAST HALF 

 OF OCTOBER, 1902. 



BY A. H. JONES, F.E.S. 



J left London on October IGth by a P. and (). steamer iur 

 Gibraltar, more in the hope of finding sunshine than with the prospect 

 of meeting with much in the entomological way. The weather was 

 bad in the Channel and in the Bay, but on October 20th, when iu 

 sight of land off Lisbon, the warmth and sunshine were an agreeable 

 change. A good sized Greometer flew from the sea across tlie vessel 

 at this spot ; unfortunately 1 was unable to capture it, but I saw it 

 sulllciently well to note that it was not a British species. This is an 

 illustration that even the feeble-flighted Geometers fly or are blown 

 out to sea a considerable distance, for we were quite ten miles away 

 from the coast. 



On the following day, after my arrival at Gibraltar, I started for 

 Alge(,uras, and thence by rail to Ronda ; the railway winds its way 

 through the Sierra de Ronda, and places along the route looked good 

 collecting ground. Ronda is a town full of interest, and in the spring 



