NOTES ON BANKESIA CONSPURCATELLA, ETC. 173 



female had both sides of all the wings heavily marked with orange. 

 Here I also took two specimens of L. loewii / the only ones I met, 



{To he concluded.) 



Notes ofl Bankesia conspurcatella, &c. 



By T. A. CHAPMAN, M.D., F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



On March 28th I took in the Val Varanno, near Pegli, a specimen 

 of a Bankesia at rest. Close by on the same rock, I found a case, 

 closely corresponding with those of Baukesia ataintoni. After killing and 

 setting the male specimen I was very vexed to breed from the case a 

 female. I have no doubt the male had been attracted by the about to 

 be disclosed female, since one other empty case was the only further 

 trace of the species I could find by a careful, but not very prolonged, 

 search. I was vexed, because I thus just missed by a trifle obtaining 

 a pairing and the means of raising a number of the species. I after- 

 wards found another case, but bred no moth, in the valley behind Volti. 

 This might possibly not belong to the same species, having a more 

 Diplnd()iiia-\ike appearance. These specimens are interesting, as their 

 habitat is almost exactly half-way between that of B. fcrndla at 

 Cannes and of B. conapurcatdla at Pratolino (near Florence), and 

 further because the $ and case do not appear to be known of any of the 

 forms except our B. stalntuni and that from the Paris district which is 

 also probably B. staintoni. 



My specimen [^) difters from B. staintoni in being very distinctly 

 and crisply marked, and in having the inner fringe alternately dark 

 and pale, and the outer pale. It is, indeed, extremely close, except in 

 size to B. aljie.strclla. That it is not B. alpestn'Ua I conclude from its 

 size, date and habitat, and from the absence of any cases of />. alpestrdla 

 in the neighbourhood, new or old, which are always so conspicuous. 

 The cases and $ are certainly of the conspurcatella group, and the 

 presumption that the 3 belongs to thenr is so strong as almost to 

 amount to demonstration. 



I may say that I myself regard all these species of the conspunatella 

 group {vernella, staintoni, nwntanellu) as being local forms of one 

 species rather than fully differentiated species, but whatever view we 

 may take on this point does not diminish the interest of elucidating 

 their differences. 



The female specimen is very close indeed to B. staintoni. Antenna: 

 !>. staintoni has 11 joints to the antenme, of which, however, several 

 are so fused that they may be described as 8 or 9. Unfortunately I 

 have mounted my specimen so that the antenmv are not well exhibited, 

 but it appears to have a joint or two less {P>. alpcstirlla has a number 

 more). Lriis : The legs are slightly more slender than those of B, 

 staintoni, but otherwise are identical, they have 8 joints to all tarsi (/;, 

 atjnstrella hiia 5). Scalinn : This is fairly well disti'ibuted, the scales 

 are slightly longer and narrower than those of U. staintoni. Bods of 

 oripositor: I'hese seem to be of the same length as those of /.'. staintoni, 

 /■/:., of last joint l-Bunn., of penultimate joint l-05nnn. It lias an 

 equally abundant supply of wool for distribution amongst the eggs. 



Having weather at Cannes that admitted of little other work, I 

 devoted a good deal of time to searching for cases of B. rernella during 

 February and March, I utterly failed to find any trace of it, no sign 



