SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 31 



season form was bred in the dry weather by feeding the larvoi with 

 food placed on a wet sponge so that the atmosphere was kept thoroughly 

 moist" (J. Jenner Weir, F.L.S., /// liti.).—]. W. Tutt, Westcombe 

 Hill, S.E. 



"Synonymic Notes on the Moths of the Early Genera of 

 NocTuiTES." — I have to thank Mr. Tutt for calling my attention 

 {Record, pp. 9-10) to what he considers to be three serious errors in 

 my recent paper on "the earlier genera of Noctuites." 



One of these I am willing to admit may be a stupid blunder ; though 

 on the other hand it may be the result of a careful study of the original 

 description of Agrotis ypsilon. I do not remember, and therefore I 

 can do no less than agree with Dr. Staudinger and others that A. suffusa 

 shall be called A. ypsilon and not Peridroma saucia. Curiously enough 

 I arranged them in our collection under these names. ^ 



With regard to A. segetis it is the older name for the species and 

 must stand in preference to A. segetum. 



Agrotis subgothica is admitted as a distinct species in Grote's check- 

 list. It is a common North American species, and if it was ever taken 

 in England (as Stephens says) it was imported. It is quite distinct 

 from A. tritici. — A. G. Butler, British Museum (Natural History), 

 South Kensington, S.W. 



[If Mr. Grote considers A. subgothica a species it is hardly possible 

 to get from the fact that the species should be called A. subgothica, 

 Grote, and not subgothica, Haw. There is no doubt that subgothica. Haw. 

 is a variety of tritici, and if Grote has described an American species 

 under this name it should be on his authority not Haworth's. — Ed.] 



Notes on Tortrix palleana, T. viburnana, T. teucriana 

 (n. sp.), and T. steineriana var. dohrnlana. — In Humphrey and 

 Westwood's British Moths, plate 79, are figures of: — (i). Tortrix 

 palleana {^g. 11) referred to Tortrix flavana. Haw. (No. 5); Haworth 

 refers this to Tortrix flavana, Hiib. (No. 157), and Dr. AVocke considers 

 this equals palleana, Hb. Vog. and Schm. 30 (1793)- This is apparently 

 the pale yellow insect we call paleana and used to know as icterana. 

 (2). Tortrix galiana (figs. 15 and 16), which repiesent male and female 

 specimens of what our northern friends get on their heaths, and which 

 Dr. Wocke says is viburniafia, Fab. var. galiana, Curt. These speci- 

 mens have in both sexes generally a more or less complete transverse 

 band on the anterior wings but occasionally the specimens (especially 

 males) are spotless and then become typical viburniana. Fab. (3). Tortrix 

 viburnana (fig. 12). This represents a specimen of the so-called 

 viburnana which we get on the south-east coast (Folkestone Warren, 

 Deal, Dover, Shoeburyness, etc.). The only foodplant of this form 

 that I know of is Teucrium and I have never found it away from the 

 coast. The anterior wings are of a shiny greyish brown. 'I his 

 viburnana of Westwood is said to be a synonym oi palleana {paleana, Hb.) 

 by Mr. South in the Entomologist list, but this is entirely wrong as it is 

 Westwood's palleana which is synonymous with Hiibner's paleana. 

 The two forms are perfectly distinct, and Westwood's viburnana is 

 undoubtedly a species intermediate between that author's palleana and 



1 I think this is good ptiind facie evidence that an error was committed rather than 

 that a probable change of names should take place. — En. 



