•' I.KAn rS NOT INTO TElMl'TATION." 89 



Eromene ocellea. " It looks as if it has been reset and the wings have 

 slipped back," says the voice at my elbow, and then the buying public 

 shows how suspicious it is by letting a lot with four Pliyciti olxlnctcUa go 

 for lis. Here a little life is infused at the sale over Curtis's t3q)es of 

 A. farreUa. One feels pleased to see the buyers waken up at the first 

 scientitic atom that has appeared in the collection, though how they will 

 know which are the original specimens is (piestionable. Things get 

 shaky again until a tine pair of T. piceana, with a very long series of each 

 of T. lafanridua and T. decretana go for 80s., and then some vars of T. 

 costana with a pair of T. gnomana fetch almost as much. Tortrix 

 semialbana, produces a guinea for six, twice over, the third and fourth 

 lots being sold for 18s. and 16s. respectively. The series of Peronea 

 cristana is sold for £8 12s. 6d., one specimen being bought for 28s., but 

 the P. hastiana although equally fine go for 22s. No one apjjears to 

 believe in Peathina greoiUana and it goes in a cheap lot, and then there 

 is a complete breakdown in the prices until some white vars of Sciaphila 

 perterana are reached. Stiymonota trauniana brings the prices up 

 again, as also does S. inter ruptana, but the lots now consist of some 300 

 to 400 specimens and, as may be expected, the prices get a little 

 higher. The Psychidoi fetch good prices, £2 5s. ; £2 15s. ; £2 ; 

 £ I 10s. ; £2 1 6s. being paid for almost successive lots whilst the twelve 

 specimens of Scard/n arcnaielln, in three lots of four each, produce Kis., 

 8s., and 12s. respectively. A lot with two T. simpliciella produces £1, 

 and then the (Ecophorae go for £2, and the Putales for £2 5s. A lot 

 consisting of 100 Gracilaria produce 24s., whilst the following lot of 

 500 containing fifteen Stathmopoda pcdella produce only 6s. Then 

 come 800 specimens of Lithocolletis for 22s., and 350 Hyponomeatas and 

 Dcpressariae for 26s., among the latter no less than seventeen D. 

 cinijiondla. The Gelechlidae and Coleophoridae are all in equally large 

 lots and most of them fetch good prices, 45s. being the highest, except a 

 lot of yOO moths containing most of the Nepticidae and a specimen of 

 Lyonetia padi/ulieJIa, which commands £4. The whole of the Plumes, 

 about 700 specimens, produce only £3 10s. 



By this time the end of this grand muddle lias been almost reached 

 and the specimens appear to have been, witli the exception of a few 

 very noticeable Cuambi and PiiYciD.i:, chiefly bond fide British, but 

 certainly valueless from a scientific point of view. There were some 

 Anesychia bipunctella though which were bought cheap for British 

 sjjccimens, considering that the insect is not yet certainly known to 

 occur in this country. 



When the remainder of the Macros are reached more life is infused 

 into the business. A pair of Chrysopihanus dinpar minus body and 

 antenna? are brought for £2 10s., whilst another luoderate pair of the 

 same produce six guineas. V. antiopa (even when lalielled " Coles, 

 Senr.") produces only 7s. per pair (I wonder liow this can hapjien in a 

 British collection), and anotlier pair of them recorded in the E.M.M., 

 go for the same price. Then comes some remnants of N. mhronca. 

 Keninants indeed, for they are mere rags, but even remnants })roduce 

 24s., 35s., and 26s. for lots of four eacli. Then come three C. 

 erythrocephaJa one var. glabra ornamented with a label on which " Mr. 

 Tutt " has been written. The auctioneer explains that Mr. Tutt lias dis- 

 owned any knowledge of the moth, and then someone gives 8s. for tliese 

 undoubtedly foreign specimens. Can human gullibility farther go ? Now 



