8 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



with a light green hchen hke growth ; but the ground was Uke a soaked 

 sponge, and bears evidence of being in this condition for a great part 

 of the year : cryptogamous vegetation being especially abundant. I 

 would suggest that entomologists when recording varieties should note 

 also the environment, in so far as it is distinctive. Such a course would 

 render records doubly valuable, and do much to clear up the question 

 of the causes of variation. — W. Mansbridge, Leeds. 



Dark var. of Phigalia pedaria (pilosaria). — On the 25th of 

 February I found that a P. pilosaria had emerged in my pupa box. I 

 obtained the caterpillar from oak last June. It was a male, very small 

 and dark in colour. On the following day I caught a male specimen of 

 the same species at rest on a post. It was much lighter in colour and 

 a great deal larger than No. i. Now during the whole of its pupal 

 stage and part of the larval, No. i must have been kept much drier and 

 warmer than No. 2, and yet No. 2 is much the larger and lighter- 

 coloured msect. May not the greater abundance of food which No. 2 

 would have had in a state of nature have had something to do with it ? 

 — John Williams Vaughan, Jun., The Skreen, Ervvood R.S.O., 

 Radnorshire. [I should say the darker colour was more probably due 

 to a diseased condition, brought about by Mr. Vaughan's implied 

 starvation diet, and thus the greater abundance of food No. 2 had in a 

 state of nature, may have something to do with it, — Ed.] 



Is MiANA fasciuncula A VAR. OF M. STRiGiLis ? — I cannot help 

 feeling that my friend, Mr. J. W. Tutt, has, on very insufficient evidence, 

 come to the conclusion that these are only one species. What really 

 is this opinion founded on ? That Mr. Tutt has received from Armagh 

 a few (probably only two ' doubtful) specimens of this protean genus. 

 That the nine " specimens sent by the Rev. W. F. Johnson from xArmagh 

 are all, what might well be called a " strong local form," is beyond dis- 

 pute ; but when seen by daylight, and the characteristic differential ^ 

 points of these too well-known and generally common insects studied, I 

 much doubt if any great difference of opinion would be found to exist 

 about them. Of course, when seen by gaslight, a difference would very 

 possibly be expressed on the spur of the moment. But looked at by 

 daylight, as I have now had the pleasure of doing, I should have no 

 difficulty or doubt in saying that seven of these Armagh specimens are 

 fasciuncula and two undoubted strigilis. That all these specimens were 

 taken together is not the slightest proof or indication that they were 

 only one species. I have many times captured the two species on the 

 same night, but I have never yet taken one that I had the slightest 

 difficulty in determining, in fact, to my mind, fa sciunaila and strigilis 

 are the most readily separated species of the groups. Why Mr. Tutt 

 can, on this extremely slight and superficial character of colouring ■* 

 alone, jump at once to the conclusion that he has found the " missing 

 link" of our long-believed-in two species is beyond me. I need not go 

 into the characters by which we have always determined these species, 



^ This is, of course, only Mr. Tugwell's individual opinion. 



^ Twenty were sent, but only nine exhibited. 



' I maintain that there is not one of what Mr. Tugwell calls differential points 

 below, characterised in my of the specimens. 



■* Mr. Tugwell must have missed my article on the subject, p. 243, and my remarks 

 on p. 315, or he could not have written this. 



