192].] 135 



proportion. Many of my nigrospaj^sata, varleyata, and htizeleitjl/cnsis 

 are really enormous examples. The species altogether seems to he con- 

 siderahly higger in South West Yorkshire than in the South of England, 

 judging from my limited experience of it there, and in looking over 

 series in southern collections ; and some of the correspondents to whom 

 I have sent specimens have remarked on the exceptionally large size 

 of them. 



I hope this paper may be the means of inducing ?ome lepidopterists 

 to take more interest in this very abundant but m ost pleasing moth. 

 Here there is a distinct tendency for the species to become gradually, 

 but indeed rapidly, darker, and it wants specially working in those 

 districts where the majority, or many of the specimens, are pale. Dm'ing 

 the past twenty years our knowledge of the median and dark forms has 

 increased enormously, but we do not know so much of what the pale 

 forms are capable of. There are two entirely white specimens, 

 var. Candida of Raynor, both, I believe, now in Mr. B. H. Crabtree's 

 collection, and I think I have heard of a third example ; but these are 

 all we know, although there is no reason why the form should not occur 

 more frequently, and one can readil}'- imagine that unknown modifica- 

 tions of these pale forms might readily be brought to light by anyone 

 systematically working districts where melanic influences are absent. 

 As my own series of the species at the present time consists of 928 

 specimens, and I know that at least one British collection contains 

 hundreds more than this, some idea may be formed of the immense 

 scope there is in it. 



Abraxas grossulariata var. melanapicata, n. 



In this variety the wings are more or less normal, except that the 

 apex of the fore wings is entirely filled in with a large, more or less 

 square blotch of black. The form occurs occasionally from wild larvae, 

 and my few cabinet specimens of it include one covered with the 

 nigrosparsata spotting. 



Elm Lea, Dalton, Huddersfield. 

 April bth, 1921. 



