92 THE entomologist's record. 



^flfiodactylu. The Linnaean description, Systema Naturce (12th edition, 

 p. 900) might mean anything : " Alucita aUs patentibus fissis cinereo- 

 nebulosis ; posticis fuscis." Haworth (quoting Fabricius' description) 

 writes : " AHs patentibus fissis cinereo-nebulosis ; posticis fusco nebulosis," 

 which is (except the last two words) exactly the Linncean description ; but 

 Haworth adds : " Habitat prope Londinum at rarissime." If the Con- 

 tinental lepidopterists are right in their assignment of the correct species 

 (a non-British one) to the Linncean name tesseradactyla, it becomes clear 

 that Haworth's tesseradaclyla (a British one occurring near Lonuon) is 

 not the Linnaean one. Haworth places the species between punctidactyla 

 and his didadyla ( = distans, according to my determination), and the 

 only British species which has occurred continuously near London, 

 which is "ashy grey," or clouded with "ashy grey," is liihodaciyla, a 

 iipecies which our early collectors must have known, and taking the feu- 

 British species, now known, that Haworth does not distinctly describe, 

 I think it is impossible to apply the description to any other British 

 species. Referring to the Continental tesscradactyla again, I dare say 

 the Continental lepidopterists have a species, distinct from but closely 

 allied to go?iodaityla ; but I have some specimens of Continental tesser- 

 adactyla, which are entirely indistinguishable from some l^nxge. gonodactyhi 

 I have bred. At any rate, I feel no doubt that the tesseradactyla of 

 Haworth is the lithodactyla of our present lists. This makes no differ- 

 ence to our nomenclature, as tesseradactyla, T^inn., is prior, and therefore 

 tesseradactyla, Haw., simply becomes synonymous with lithodactyla, 

 Treitschke. There is still another point in Wocke's synonymy of litho- 

 dactyla, which wants clearing up. Wocke makes isodactyla, Zell., 

 synonymous with similidactyla, Dale. But Dale's description of simili- 

 dactyla is a first class one of lithodactyla, and has nothing in common 

 with isodactyla, Zell. To make matters more mixed. Dr. Staudinger, in 

 his trade list, has sometimes for sale y-Ed. lithodactyla, Plat, similidactyla, 

 and Flat, isodactyla, so that Dr. Staudinger's idea of these species is 

 rather muddled, and it would be apparently very unsafe to place the 

 slightest reliance in the correctness of his nomenclature of any of these 

 more difficult species which he may obtain. 



(4). Phceodactyla, Hb. = leucadactyla. Haw. ( $ ), lunczdactyla. Haw. 

 {$). Another sexually dimorphic species — phceodactyla — appears, like 

 tetradactyla, to have had the sexes named as distinct species by Haworth. 

 The female, from its pale colour, h€\\\gc?\\&di''^ leucadactyla'''' (the lemon 

 plume) ; the male, from the characteristic lunar mark on the anterior 

 wings, being called ''' lioia;dactyla" {\hQ crescent plume). Both these 

 names sink as synonyms of Hiibner's phceodactyla, Hiibner figuring 

 (14, 15) both sexes of this species under the latter name. Wocke, in 

 his Catalog, gives '■^ luiKzdactyla, Haw., 477," as synonymous vf'\\\\ pha:o- 

 dactyla, but not leucadactyla, the paler female form. 



(5). Pallidactyla, Haw. = bertrami. Roes., = ochrodactylus, Sta. Mr. 

 Stainton, E}it. Mo. Mag., vol. ii., pp. 137, 138, explained that his ochro- 

 dactylus was synonymous with bertrat?n. One readily understands, when 

 there was supposed to be only one species, why this author dropped 

 Haworth's name entirely to take up the prior name of Hiibner, but 

 when our common British insect, the ochrodactylus of Stainton = palli- 

 dactyla, Haw., became synonymous with bertrami, Roessler, and the 

 ochrodactyla of Hiibner was restricted to the dichrodactylus of Miihlig, 



