KOTES OX ABRAXAS GROSSULAniATA AND HOW TO RKAR FT. 



siderably inbred. To my miiul, size is a veiy important point in this 

 species. In undersized specimens the colours are often faint or bleached, 

 and such insects seem to me of very little interest or value. Many of the 

 aberrations that have from time to time been figured by different 

 authors are deficient in size and, therefore, unless very extraordinary, 

 seem to me to have been hardly Avorthy of such counterfeit present- 

 ment. I have not had the opportunity of seeing Oberthiir's vol. xxi 

 of the Etudes iV KntDiiiuloijie, entitled " Variation des Lepidopteres," 

 but I believe that he therein figures some 200 aberrations or varie- 

 ties of A. (irdssiilanata, mostly of British origin. Barrett, in his 

 work, represents 19; and Mosley, in the earlier numbers of The 

 Xatiiralist's Journal for 1895, has 29 excellent woodcuts, yet to none 

 of these 250 aberrations have the authors assigned varietal names. 

 So far as I can ascertain, only two (or at most three) British aberra- 

 tions have so far ever been named, viz., ab. liitca by Cockerell, ab. 

 rarli'i/ata by Porritt, and, perhaps, ah. Jiavofa^tciata hy Unene {Stctt. 

 Knt.' Zeit.,'ld01, p. 158; Bed. Ent. Zeits., 1901, pi. vi., fig. 10). I, 

 therefore, deem this a fitting opportunity for describing and naming a 

 few of the more prominent and easily defined forms. There are 

 many most beautiful forms in which the markings on the forewings 

 are so complex, as to baffle description ; others in which the hindwings 

 display most extraordinary markings, but, as similarly marked hind- 

 wings may occur in specimens with dissimilar forewings, I have not 

 thought fit to differentiate aberrations merely by the markings on the 

 hindwings. Jjarrett justly says, regarding this species, that "to 

 describe all the results of the constant rearing of specimens for many 

 years would tax the energies of the most laborious and diffuse writer." 

 I will, therefore, at once proceed to describe certain striking aberra- 

 tions, and to assign names to all except the tw^o which have already 

 been called lutea and varleyata. The following is a tabular list of 

 the aberrations of A. ;/rossidariata : — 



A. Pale Aberrations. — a. ab. ciuidida, mihi. — I have never seen this form, 

 which is tigured by S. L. Mosley in the Ndturalists" JouriKil for February, 1895, 

 p. 33, tig. 1. In the text Moriley says, '-Fig. 1 is entirely white, without any 

 black at all. I have only seen two — one in Mr. Gregson's collection (now Webb's), 

 and the other in the late J. ISidebotham's, of Bowdon." 



j3. ab. lacticolor, mihi. — This being a well-known form, recurrent in Lanes., 

 seems to merit a full description. Ground-colour of all wings pale creamy : black 

 markings very much reduced. A small black basal blotch on forewings, and three 

 similar equidistant blotches along costal margin, the first touching the yellow basal 

 blotch and the third situate at the top of the pale yellow median transverse band. 

 Discoidal spot (black) well-developed, and, in the pale area below^it, are three or four 

 other minute black specks. Tlie series of black spots inside the yellow median 

 band forms a broken stripe ; the outer series along the same are faint and wedge- 

 shaped. The usual seven spots along the hindmargin are snuill but distinct, as 

 they are also along the hindmargin of the hindwings. Otherwise, the hindwings 

 hav'e no markings but a minute black central spot, and, below it, seven very faint 

 black dots stretching obliquely from near the apex to a point rather below the 

 centre of the inner margin. There is also a single small black spot at the centre 

 of the inner margin. Expanse, l^'in. Always ? . Locahties — Lanes., Sussex (Arling- 

 ton). This form is figured on p. 99, column 1, of Newman's British Moths. Miss 

 E. Miller has shown me two ? examples of this aberration, b)-ed in 1902, from 

 larvae taken wild on blackthorn, at Chelmsford. 



y. ab. chdlcitzoua, mihi. — Similar to /i, but basal blotch and median band, 

 instead of being pale yellow, are of a dead coppery-bronze, the median band being 

 very broad and handsome. Tlie hindwings of S02ne specimens show a very faint 

 yellow horizontal stripe starting from a point opposite the anus and extending over 

 two-thirds of tlie wing towards the apes. Always ? . Expanse, 2ins. Locality — 

 Chiswick and Lanes. 



5. ab. axantha, mihi. — A form in which the yellow trHn^vcr-^p Iwnds on fore- 



