VARIATION. 241 



some question unsettled about the foodplants of their respective 

 larvae? — ^C. Fenn, Lee. November^ 1890. 



The Isle of Wight and Dorsetshire CE. pill e nana have also appeared 

 to me very dissimilar, but as I only possess two or three of the latter 

 specimens, I cannot speak with any degree of certainty. How 

 this species came to be regarded as British in the first place, has 

 always puzzled me. Continental pilleria7ia were said to feed on vine. 

 Mr. Wilson Saunders' unique Isle of Wight example, was bred from 

 Iris fivtidissima, a most smgular foodplant, for any other than a root 

 feeder to adopt, but his known accuracy of observation prevented any 

 doubt from being thrown upon it. I have seen this insect, and, like 

 the chameleon, it had changed its appearance. The specimen in his 

 cabinet was an undoubted Tortrix rosa/ia, very strongly marked. 

 Possibly there were but few Micro collectors present when this specimen 

 was exhibited, and it thus passed without question. The locality was 

 very near the little church (St. Lawrence, I think) between Ventnor and 

 Black-Gang. His after examples, true pilleriana were obtained in 

 subsequent years by sweeping. — Sydney Webb, Dover. Novetfiber, 1890. 



In the account of the meeting (September 25th) of the South London 

 Entomological and Natural History Society, on page 191 of the Rec rd, 

 ]\Ir. P. M. Bright is said to have exhibited "a series of the heath form of 

 (Etiect?-a pilleriana (Bournemouth), which is strikingly different from 

 those obtained by Mr. Eustace Bankes and other collectors in Dorset- 

 shire." ^ As this locality has been given under a misapprehension, I 

 should like to state at once that none of the specimens of (E. pilleriana 

 which I have ever sent out, have come from Dorsetshire, but they have 

 all been bred from larvae found in the Isle of Wight. Mr, Bright's 

 specimens are precisely identical loith the small brownish-ochreous 

 variety ( ? darker, unicolorous), which occurs locally in some of the 

 bogs on our extensive heaths, and is the only form known to occur in 

 this county. The larva of this small brownish form feeds on 

 Nartheciuni ossifragiun (bog asphodel). — All the specimens received 

 from me have been of a large handsome reddish- ochreous variety ( ? 

 unicolorous, very glossy rich dark chesnut) of the insect, which I have 

 never seen from elsewhere; and, in my series are specimens from 

 Devonshire and from Ventnor, which are intermediate between the two 

 extreme forms already referred to. In addition to bog asphodel, the 

 larva has, to my knowledge, been found in Britain on marjoram, 

 knapweed, sea lavender, and seeds of stinking iris, while the number of 

 its foodplants on the Continent is legion. A most interesting chapter 

 might be written about this species with regard to its variation in colour, 

 size, and markings, according to the different spots in which it occurs, 

 and the different foodplants it affects ; the peculiarities of the female, 

 and the difference in the dates of its appearance, according to the 

 characters of the strangely dissimilar haunts in which it is found. — 

 Eustace R. Bankes, The Rectory, Corfe Castle, Dorset. October, 1890. 



Black Variety of Aplecta nebulosa. — I bred a black variety of 

 A. nebulosa, from a solitary larva, picked up in the Delamere district, in 

 the spring. Mr. C. G. Barrett says that this form is quite new to him. — 

 J. Collins, Lilford Street, Warrington. 



^ I was under the impression at the time that the}' were from Dorsetshire. — Ed. 



