CURRENT NOTES, 



177 



CoREMiA FERRUGATA AND UNIDENTARIA. — Mr, Prout asks for any 

 information concerning the specific difference or otherwise of these 

 so-called species, and suggests a few careful experiments which he 

 considers ought to settle the question. No doubt many of your readers 

 are familiar with the old tale of the Chinaman whose house was burnt 

 down containing his pig ; the pig was roasted, and for some time it was 

 thought necessary to burn down a house in order to obtain roast pig, 

 until it was discovered that a porkling might be roasted and still leave 

 the house unburnt ! Thus, Mr. Front's experiments seem to suggest 

 almost any method except the most simple and natural one, viz., — -thai 

 of comparing structure. His three pages and a half are carefully devoted 

 to comparison of scale markings ; but surely a moth is not composed 

 entirely of scales. Why then should structure be so carefully avoided ? 

 Had the specimens belonged to the Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, or Neur- 

 optera, the structure would have been the first thing examined, but, be- 

 cause they are Lepidoptera, the only part used for differentiation is scale 

 markings, which every breeder knows to be most variable and eccentric. 



One of the most important parts to the anatomical student, is the 

 genital organ of the male. This, as a rule, differs greatly m species 

 otherwise very closely resembling each other, and it is to the investi- 

 gation of these organs, I devote myself when I wish to at once tell 

 whether unidentaria and fernigata are one or 

 two species, A glance at the two woodcuts 

 will at once show how different these two 

 species are in the structure of this part alone. 

 They represent what are termed the harpes, 

 and consist of a pair of hooks, situated one at 

 either side of the terminal segment. In the 

 first figure, that of fernigata, the hook is 

 furnislied with a series of cockscomb-like pro- 

 jections, which are absent in the second figure, that of unidentaria, in 

 which the basal portion is rounded and narrower than m fernigata, where 

 it is angulated and stouter. The remaining parts of the organ are 

 equally distinct. No matter how variable may be the scale markings, 

 the structure of these organs will be found constant. In conclusion, 

 should Mr. Prout, or any other of your readers, wish to test the 

 accuracy of my statement, let him send me a body of a male carefully 

 cut off from either of these two species, and I will undertake to name 

 it from the genitalia alone, — F, N. Pierce, 143, Smithdown Lane, 

 Liverpool. August 2nd, 1892. 



C. fernigata. C. mn'dentaria. 



Current notes. 



The British Naturalist gives this month a portrait of Mr. George T. 

 Porritt, who, after thirty years of collecting is as keen a field naturalist 

 as ever, and whose List of the Lepidoptera of Yorkshire is a perfect 

 monument of patient labour, 



Mr. Gardner records Deilephila galii from Hartlepool. Mr. Reid 

 saw Vanessa antiopa at Forres. Further records of Plusia moneia are 

 in our current number ; whilst Mr. i'eers records two others from 



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