April, 1905.] 77 



LIFE-HISTORY OF, AND NOTES ON, LEUCANFA FAVICOLOR, 



Babeett. 



By Paymaster-in-Chief GERVASE F. MATHEW, R.N., F.L.S., F E.S. 



In the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for 1896, vol. vii of 

 second series (vol. xxxii), pp. 99-100, the late Mr. C. G. Barrett de- 

 scribed the above species from three examples T sent to him, and 

 which I captured on the coast in this neighbourhood, and at the same 

 time he described' a red variety of what he then referred to as Z. 

 pallens, from specimens I forwarded to him for examination. 



In his excellent work on the British Lepidoptera, vol. v, pp. 

 141-2, he again describes the species, and gives three figures of it on 

 plate 201 ; and in his description of L. pollens, vol. v, p. 140, he 

 likewise refers to the red varieties taken here, which he still con- 

 sidered to be extraordinary aberrations of Z. pollens, and mentioned 

 that similar examples had been found near the mouth of the Thames. 

 (I may here note that I first took specimens of this red variety as 

 long ago as 1886.) 



From August, 1S96, until October, 1898, I was away from Eng- 

 land in H.M.S. " Hawke," on the Mediterranean Station, and was not 

 able to pay any attention to this species again until 1899, in which 

 year only two were noticed. None were seen in 1900, or 1901, and 

 only five in 1902, although they were carefully looked for, but in 

 1903 they occurred in small numbers, and also in 1904. Among the 

 series taken in 1903 there were some very extraordinary and beautiful 

 varieties, comprising various shades of grey, deep red, and even 

 yellow, and I now came to the conclusion that the so-called red 

 variety of pollens was really only a variety of favicolor ; an opinion 

 I had previously entertained. The red variety of pollens is quite a 

 different looking insect, for, in addition to its general shape and 

 appearance, and its usually smaller size, the red is very much less 

 pronounced, being more or less tinged with ochreous, and the white, 

 or pale straw coloured nervures are always conspicuously raised, while 

 in favicolor the wings are quite smooth, and the veins are almost 

 imperceptible. 



From the above series I selected some of the finest examples, 

 and forwarded them to Mr. Barrett, who was very pleased to see 

 them, and he now concurred with me in considering the red aberra- 

 tions to be varieties of L. favicolor, and not of Z. pollens, and he 

 contributed a short account of them to this Magazine, vol. xl, p. 61. 



I obtained ova from three different varieties (one typical, one 

 red, and one yellow), and from these I last year succeeded in breeding 



