GEOMETRIDES OF SPAIN. 161 



They appear to move late in the afternoon ; before noon they sit still 

 or walk aimlessly about. By the middle of July they are mostly dead, 

 and, towards the end of their career, the males outnumber the females, 

 the majority of whom have offered their bodies as nourishment to 

 their lords and masters, making a sacrifice in corpore irili, after 

 exhausting themselves in the act of propagating their kind. Truly 

 an excess of altruism ! 



Furthur contributions to a knowledge of the Geometrides of Spain. 



By LOUIS B. PROUT, F.E.S. 



In earlier volumes of the Ent. Rec. (xiv., p. 198 ; xv., p. 96; xvi., 

 p. 284) I have discussed some collections of Geometrides brought from 

 the peninsula by Dr. Chapman, on former occasions. I desire to 

 express anew my thanks to him for his continued help on his recent 

 visits, and to offer a few notes on the material provided, especially 

 during his excursion of 1906, of which he and Mr. Champion have 

 just published an account in the Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society of London (1907, pp. 147-171). 



Considering that Geometrides were not the special " quarry," a 

 considerable variety of species was obtained, the total number reaching 

 34. The localities were the following : Vigo, June 18th-27th, 1906 ; 

 Casayo, July 2nd-8th ; Branuelas, July 10th-16th ; and Pontevedra, 

 July 19th-22nd. Casayo yielded the longest list (20 species), but two 

 or three of the Vigo and Branuelas species were very interesting. 



Pseudoterpna coronillaria, Hb. (?pruinata, var.), occurs both at Vigo 

 and Casayo, one of the females from the latter locality is extremely 

 large, with the black lines very sharp. I am gradually getting together 

 a very interesting series of these southern representatives (or forms) of 

 P. pniinata ; they are decidedly variable, but never with any suspicion 

 of the green colour that characterises the northern type. The Corsican 

 form (P. corsicaria, Rbr.), of which — through the kindness of Mr. 

 Powell of Hyeres — I possess a nice pair, is hardly distinguishable from 

 certain forms of coronillaria. I unfortunately failed to rear the larvaa 

 from ova of the last-named, which Dr. Chapman obtained. 



Sterrha sericeata, Hb., another widely distributed southern species, 

 was also brought from Vigo and Casayo, and is noteworthy in that the 

 female from Vigo is a very pretty aberration, with the two lines (or 

 bars) behind the discal spot joined into one, a rather broad clear 

 central area containing the spot itself. The local S. luteolaria, Const., 

 was again in evidence (cfr. Ent. Rec, xv., p. 97; xvi., pp. 286, 287), 

 two examples coming from Canales. I have not yet recorded it from 

 Puerto de Pajares and La Granja (Chapman, July, 1904). 



In the genus Ptychopoda [Eois, Meyr., Acidalia, Hampsn.), several 

 interesting species occurred. /'. robiginata, Stgr., only recorded for 

 Castile, was apparently not uncommon at Casayo ; Dr. Chapman 

 brought me ten specimens, unfortunately nearly all worn, but showing 

 some slight variation in the position of the lines. /'. politata, Hb. 

 (Vigo), was represented only by the var. abmarginata, Bhtsch., lacking 

 the dark borders of the type form ; one of the three is quite extreme, 

 the other two slightly intermediate, showing some slight tendency to 

 darkening in the marginal area. The P. fuscovenosa, Goeze (inter- 

 jectaria, Bdv.), also from Vigo, are rather full-coloured, and, on the 



