200 



THE KNTOMOI,0(;iST S RECORD. 



Geometra papilionaria, Linne {iritli plate). 



By the Rev. C. R. N. BURROWS. 

 The insect which I have the privilege of bringing to your 

 notice is one which has two distinct claims upon us, as 

 naturalists and entomologists. First, because on account of its size 

 and great beauty, its capture is always regarded with a comfortable 

 feeling of satisfaction, even though, in the south of England at least, 

 it is by no means uncommon ; and, secondly, because it is an insect 

 about whose name there cannot be the least question. Happily for iis, 

 the name which Linne gave to it is unchangeable, and will belong to 

 it while lepidopterists collect, and while the world lasts. But, although 

 there is no doubt about the name, there is very considerable confusion 

 as to what the great Swedish naturalist meant to describe, what form 

 he had before him, /.c, what is our type. The investigation proving 

 to l)e quite beyond my own powers, our good friend Mr. Prout, who, I 

 believe, revels in such matters, has been kind enough to absorb, digest, 

 and condense for me, the numerous works in which Linne gave to the 

 world, what I may perhaps be allowed to call the first attempt on the 

 part of man, since Solomon, to arrange the works of Nature. Mr. 

 Prout writes, "In 1746, Linne introduced this species without a name 

 — this being before the days of binomial nomenclature — in his Fauna 

 Siiecira, ed. 1 (1746)''', no. 922, but be described it so vaguely, and badly, 

 that it would be hardly recognisable but for his own citations in his 

 later works. In 175<S, in his SystcDia Natnrae, ed. 10, he redescribed 

 it, and gave it the name of Plialaena [(jeoiiiftra) papilionariajr , by which 

 name it has since been almost universally known, although Hufnagel, 

 in 1767, named it praslnarla. Linne's best description of the species 

 is given in the second edition of his Fauna Suecica (1761), p. 34, which 

 shows that he was describing from a tolerably normal specimen, 

 having the two outer lines of the forewing weakly defined, and the 

 basal line indistinct. He writes : 



" Fhaluena (Geovietra) piipilionoria pectinicornis, alis omnibus viridibus : 

 strigis duabus albidis undatis ; posticis repandis ; antennis flavis. Habitat in 

 Tilia. Desciip. — Magnitude Papilio brassicae. A\se virides : strigis duabus 

 posterioribus albidis, obsoletis, undulatis, cum rudimento tertite versus basin : 

 Inferiores alte margine repandffi, similiter pictse. AntenntE et pedes flavescentes." 



This translated reads : Pectinated antennas, all the wings green ; 

 two waved white stripes ; hindwings with margin sinuous ; antenna 

 yellow. Lives on lime. Description. — Size of Papilio brassicae. 

 Wings green : tAvo posterior, obsolete, undulated, white stripes, with 

 the rudiment of a third towards the base : hindwings with the 

 margin sinuous, similarly marked ; antennne and legs yellowish [Fauna 

 Svfcica, ed. 2 (1761), p. 826]. Linne's description of the type as 

 possessing " strigai obsolette " proves that the form he was describing 

 had not any distinctly defined lines. Hufnagelj mentions three trans- 



* Phaltu'ini albo-virescens, alis planiuseulis. Habit. UpsaliiE. Descrip. — Tota 

 ejusdem eoloiis inter album et viride medii, magnitudine ad itrticariavi 744 facile 

 accedens. (The said urticaria stands for our Vajiensa urticne. — L.B.P.) 



f I'luilaena (Geometra) pectinicornis, omnibus viridibus erectis : striga sesqui- 

 tiltera pallida repanda. Habitat in Thymo. Fn. Svec. 922. [Sy sterna Naturae, 

 ed. 10, tom. i., p. 522 (1758).] 



+ Ih'rl. May., iv, p. 506, 1767. Plialaena prasinaria, grass-green, with three 

 narrow yellowish-white interrupted transverse stripes running parallel. — L.B.P. 



