58 [March, 



Liosoma ohlongulum. Boh., two svvcpl. in Cusop Dingle ; Orchestex prnfensis. 

 Germ., Ledbury, rare, Colwall, common in a damp meadow ; Anthonomns comari, 

 Crotch, Colwall, rare in a damp meadow ; Ceuf.horrht/nchu>i alUarix, Bris., Britisli 

 Camp, on Alliaria officinalis. 



Reading : Janiiari/ l&th, 1909. 



SCOPARIA AMBIGUALIS, Tr., ab. crossi, n. ab. 



BY EUSTACE R. BANKES, M.A., F.E.S. 



Fore-wings pure white, with the base fuscous, or ochreous-fuscous, and the 

 median area, lying between the first and second blackish lines, and enclosing the 

 usual black stigmata or indications thereof, dusted with fuscous, sometimes much 

 mixed with ochreous ; the subterminal area may show a few scattered fuscous scales, 

 and immediately before, and parallel with, the termen is seen an irregular blackish 

 line of varying width, which may be much interrupted and ill-defined. Hind-wings 

 satiny, pale golden-grey. 



Of this most striking and beautiful aberration of .Scoparia 

 amhigualis the only examj)les known to uie are two that were taken 

 in the New Forest, Hants, by the late Mr. W. J. Cross, of Ely, after 

 whom I have much pleasure in naming the form. The male {alar, 

 exp., 19 mm.), which is the more cleanly marked, was captured on 

 August 2nd, 1898, while the female {alar, exp., 22 mm.), which has 

 the median area strongly ochreous in parts, and the dark lines and 

 markings — possibly owing, in some degree, to its less fine condition 

 — not so black and clearly defined, was taken on July 2i)th 1899. 



Noticing my statement, in Entom. xxxix, 4U— 41 (190G), that, to 

 the best of my belief, Scoparia merciirella ab. portlandica had never 

 been met with outside the Isle of Portland, Mr. Cross, in 1906, sent 

 me these individuals for examination, as he had placed them in his 

 cabinet as exponents of S. '' phaeoleuca,'' under which name ab. 

 portlandica erroneously figured for many years in all British cata- 

 logues, &c. At the dispersal, by auction, of his Lepidoplera last 

 autumn, these most interesting aberrations passed into my collection. 

 The form they represent is widely separated from the typical one by 

 the snowy whiteness of the ground-colour of the fore-wings, as seen 

 especially in the subbasal and subterminal areas, which throw the 

 darker median area into strong relief, and is exactly jjarallel with 

 <^. mercurella ab. portlandica, and with ^. duhitalis ab. purheckensis. 



Norden, Corfe Castle : 



September \st, 1908. 



