fi4 THE entomologist's recorp. 



with two blackish lines, one being faintly marked. The figures agree 

 well with this description. Herrich-Schaeffer. in 1844: (St/st. Bearheit., 

 iii, fig. 14), figures the $ . 



']\irning now to British authors : — Donovan (Brit. Insects, xiii, pi. 

 447), in 1808, figures and minutely describes the species under the name 

 of Phalaena ursiilaria (the thick-haired moth). Both sexes are said to 

 be represented in the plate, but the figures are all of males. Donovan 

 would have referred it to the Bombyces " without scruple .... Init for 

 the authority of Mr. Drury, who was so fortunate as to rear it from the 

 caterpillar, and which, being of the looper kind, decidedly proves it to 

 l)e of the Geometr.^, instead of Bombvx family." Donovan thought 

 the specimens bred from these larvaa and preserved in Drury's cabinet 

 (which Donovan possessed) were unique. It seems rather curious that 

 he should have thus re-named the insect, as he was acquainted with the 

 Mantitisa, and especially as he says " our present insect has some re- 

 semljlance . . to the sp. hirtaria, but is smaller," while Fabricius writes 

 " Ximis aifinis P. hirtariae at paullo minor." Newman, in the Entomo- 

 loijicdl Miujazine for 1833 (vol. i, 413), described the pale form as a new 

 species, under the name of Nyss'ia tanaria . His description is as follows : — ■ 

 " Fusco grisea, metathoracis margine anteriori, lineaque centrali longi- 

 tudinal! nigris, ^ ," and he mentions as specific characters by which to 

 distinguish it from hispidaria and jjilosnria, " its superiority in size to 

 the former of these ; the T on the mesothoi-ax, formed by the transverse 

 and longitudinal black lines ; the broad pale margins of the front wings, 

 and lastly, tlie fact that the specimen emerged at such a different time 

 of the year from other members of the genus (which, Guene'e states, all 

 appear in March, or earlier), it having been taken by Newman's father, 

 in June, 1832, at Leominster, in a perfectly recent state, and had 

 apparently never flown." 



Wood (Index Entomologicus, fig. 1G75) figures this specimen as Nyssia 

 tanaria, but there is a note by Westwood, " hispidaria var." Wood 

 gives reference to Entom. Mag. and to Stephens (lU. Hand., iv., p. 391). 

 He also delineated hispidaria (No. 466), his figure being of a dirty 

 brownish-grey colour, the inner margin clouded with a darker shade, 

 the outer margin pale and the transverse lines indistinct. Guenee 

 (Hist. Nat. des Insedes., Geom. i., 202) referring to the tauaria of 

 Newman, as figured by Wood, says " it does not appear to me even a 

 variety. It is a fairly good figure of the type, wliilst No. 466 is inexact 

 and much too dark." He adds that he had, however, received from 

 England " an individual much more sombre than the French form." 

 Newman in his British 3Ioths omits all mention of tanaria, but gives a 

 very good description of our usual form of hispidaria. 



The varieties of Nyssia his2ridaria may be roughly classified as 

 follows : — (a) Pale greenish-grey, lines distinct : (b) pale reddish-brown, 

 lines distinct (Hb. 177) : (c) ashy-brown, w-ith darker band ; this may 

 be divided into two sub- varieties (cl) ashy, with a brownish tendency 

 (the type) and (c2) ashy, with a greenish tendency : (d) similar to the 

 type, iaut with the outer margin of fore-wings nearly white : (e) melanic. 

 The first form might well be called var. tauaria, Newm., though it does 

 not always show plainly the black T on the meso-thorax. This is the 

 form to which Guenee refers as the type. Examples of this pale form 

 are, according to our experience, rare ; their proportion being about 2 

 or 3 per cent. I have seen no specimens that agree with Hiibner's 



