90 [AprU, 



ffESPERTA ALrEUS, HiiBX., AS A NORFOLK INSECT. 

 BT JAMES EDWARDS, F.E.S. 



For more than ten years past it has been known that a species of 

 Hpitppria, srnsii siricto, other than H. mnlvcd had been taken in 

 Norfolk, hilt tlie pnblished acconnts of its occurrence and the <le- 

 scription of it f2;iven by Mr. Barrett (Lep. Brit. Is., i, p. 272) furnish 

 no means of deciding whctlier the insect in question was really 

 nlvrifs, ITiibn , onopordi, Tibr., or one or other of the two structurall}' 

 distinct species at present standinp^ in some collections as serratuhr, 

 Rbr. So lonp; ago as IS58 Rambiir jxiinted out (Lep. de L'Andalousie, 

 p (V?>) that K. nlvriis and its immediate allies could only be separated 

 with certainty by the form of the male genitalia; and the absolute 

 necessity for taking these characters into consideration, if correct 

 concdusions are to be arrived at, has been <lemonstrated by more 

 thaTi one student of lleaperiida; since his day. 



There is no inherent improbabilitv in the occurrence of H.nlceiis 

 in this country, and I had long intended to endcsavour to place the 

 determinatit)n of these Norfolk specimens on a more satisfactory 

 basis. Quite recently the knowledge that (Edemern nirei<cens, L., is 

 only known as British from one locality, a very few miles from the 

 original habitat for H. alneus, directed my attention to the matter 

 again. 1 communicated with the Rev. T. H. Marsh, the captor of 

 these Norfolk alveus, with the result that he very kindly placed at my 

 disposal one of the original examples; and T am thus enabled to say 

 that the Cawston Flesperia, of which he took not a chance specimen 

 merely, but a series, has the clasp-form proper to H. alveus, Hiibn., as 

 fi.xed by Rambur, i.e., the apex of the clasp is very broadly rounded, 

 " arrondie presqu'en cercle " ; and further, that the form of the entire 

 male genitalia agrees exactly with that which is absolutely diagnostic 

 of ff. alliens, Hiibn., whether in its more prevalent state or in the 

 more sparsely spotted form known as TI. Spei/eri, Stgr. 



T venture to think that both the beetle before named and the 

 butterfly are to be regarded as survivals of the ancient fauna of 

 Central \orfolk, and that there is no need to attempt to account for the 

 occurrence of the latter either by immigration or accidental intro- 

 duction along with plants. H. aJvrus, if one may judge by the habits 

 of its ('(ingener R. mnlvce, hardly seems a likely subject for migration ; 

 and unless there is some direct evidence; that plants capable of con- 

 veying H. nlreus in one or other of its (;arly stages were actually 

 introduced into the damp valley at the edge of a wood at Cawston, in 

 Norfolk, prior to tlie date of its capture, the introduction theory may 

 safely be disregarded. 



Colesboriie, C'lieltenliam : 



February l9</i, 19m;5. 



