23G the entomologist's kecokd. 



whitish, barred with dark grey. Hindwings as forewings, but first line absent. A 

 darker discal mark. Termen sub-caudate angulated." 



To this description I would only add that the underside (how sadly 

 undersides are neglected) is spotless, with the exception of the fringes, 

 which are spotted, as on the upperside. The only variation which I 

 have noticed, save such as is obviously due to fading of the peculiar 

 green shade which characterises the species, is the spreading of the 

 dark spots upon the cilia (a specimen showing this peculiarity is in 

 Mr. Prout's collection), and there is sometimes a suspicion of darkening 

 between the transverse lines upon the forewings, suggesting a band, 

 but it appears to me to be more the effect of imagination than a fact. 

 There also appears to be a little variation in the distance between the 

 transverse lines, with a slight tendency in the inner line to become 

 obsolete. Otherwise there is but little difference between one specimen 

 and another so far as I have been able to observe. 



The form alboundulata, which Staudinger mentions with a query 

 as to its being this species, is a foreigner, and Mr. Prout has been good 

 enough to look it up for me. Hedemann. in a paper entitled " A 

 Contribution to the Lepidopterous Fauna of Amurland " (Horae Soc. 

 Ent. Boss., xiv., p. 511, pi. hi., fig. 8), gives a description and figure 

 under the name. Mr. Prout has translated his words thus : — 



" Dull bine-green forewings, with a darker central band, enclosed by two 

 wavy whitish lines, hindwings with a wavy whitish line, the lighter fringes 

 chequered with brown on the nervures. Frons and palpi red-brown, vertex white, 

 antennas finely ciliated, yellowish, thorax and abdomen green, legs yellowish-grey. 

 The hind tibiae of the male compressed (or aborted, which is one of the distinctive 

 features of the genus HemitJiea). Form of wings exactly as in strigata, Miill., to 

 which it comes nearest, but from which it is at once distinguishable through its 

 more grey-green colour (He has called it above dull blue-green !) and the whitish 

 transverse lines of the forewings. Of these, the first is much further from 

 the base than in strigata, hence much nearer the second line, and the enclosed 

 darker band is consequently narrower. Also, in alboundulata, the transverse lines 

 are more strongly angulated. The hindwings have, in strigata, a dark lunular discal 

 spot [Does he mean as in strigata, but the figure does not show this?]. The 

 transverse lines as in that species The undersides of all the wings and fringes 

 are clear white-green, silky, without any markings. At Blagoweschlschemsk (a 

 place situated in Amurland). 



Mr. Prout, and I, by his kindness, have examined his figure, and have 

 come to the conclusion that Staudinger is probably right. Mr. 

 Prout writes me that no such species has ever turned up in sub- 

 sequent explorations of the- region from whence it came. The colour 

 is right, the lines have the same form, but the two on the fore- 

 wings are much closer together than in our H. strigata. This latter 

 however, is not an uncommon form of variation amongst the 

 Geometrids, as in the case of Hitnera pennaria, Eugonia quercinaria, 

 in the rotundaria form of Cabera pusaria, and many others. Thus 

 far, therefore, the identification would appear to be certain. But 

 the figure, otherwise a good one, does not show the broadly chequered 

 fringes, nor a sufficiently tailed hind-wing. I may add to this, that 

 the figure gave me the impression of having been made from a 

 specimen which had lost its fringes, which may explain why, in the 

 description, the fringes of the hind wing are spoken of as unspotted. 



This is as far as I can go with the variation of this very invariable 

 insect. 



(To be continued). 



