100 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



yellow colour, with a central reddish streak descending from the costa, 

 about two-thirds across the wing ; the fore wings have the apical spots 

 more distinct than in the type." I have not seen Mr. Lang's figure, 

 but the description given by Mr. Barrett is quite correct. Up to the 

 present I have not seen a true British lyUus, but I have no doubt that 

 it may have occurred on our south coasts. 



Syrichtns malvae. — A specimen of var. iara.s, ]\Ieig. (htrdfcrac, 

 Haw.), was taken by myself in 1892 in a field opposite the barracks 

 at Cowley. Several other specimens were taken at the same place in 

 1893, but I was unable to find any larva3, nor did I see a 5 in the act 

 of oviposition. They only occurred in a small spot, a few yards in 

 circumference. Out of a large series of /S. malvae, cajDtured at Dor- 

 chester in 1893, not one differed from the type. 



Vanessa urticae. — A specimen was taken, drying its wings on some 

 palings near Dorchester Mill, on July 6th, 1893, which has a peculiar 

 gxeasy or semi-transparent appearance, and in which the reddish colour 

 has quite faded. — John W. Shipp, Oxford, Jan. 1894. 



I have noticed the following varieties and aberrations among the 

 Rhopalocera. — Vanessa atalanta. — A number of specimens showed a 

 distinct Avhite spot in the scarlet band*; some sjoecimens bred by a 

 friend, from larvae taken near here, are of a very dull colour, tlie band 

 being of a brownish-red hue, instead of the usual brilliant vermilion ; 

 in this strange brood were two sjDCcimens in which the wings are much 

 shorter on one side than the other (see Ent. Ber. [{., pp. 95, 119, Ed.), 

 Chr)/sophanus pldoeas, captured at Prestwich Carr, by Mr. Dunn of 

 Wylam, has several of the black spots on the fore Avings suppressed. 

 Lycaena Icarus. Several ? s of this species are of a very brilliant l)lue, 

 almost as gay as the <? s. — Chas. H. Crass, South Shields, Feb., 189-4. 



©URRENT NOTES. 



Those who have read Mr. Elwes' "Revision of the genus (Eneis " 

 published in the Trans. Ent. Soc., London, will be interested in the 

 criticism thereof by W. H. Edwards in The Canadian Entomolorjist for 

 March. It would appear therefrom, that the paper, so far as it relates 

 to the American species, is a most unsatisfactory production, and we 

 quite agree with the critic in his concluding remarks, that " there 

 never will be a final authoritative revision of any genus of butterflies 

 till the preparatory stages in every species of it are known. Species 

 are as clearly distinguished by the form and sculpture of their eggs, by 

 the forms and appendages of the caterpillars, and by the peculiarities 

 of the pupfXi, as by the facies of the imago. This feature has been the 

 occasion of the endless and irreconcilable differences that prevail m 

 nearly all genera up to this day. To proceed further in the same 

 direction is plainly a waste of time. It is a case of the blind leading 

 the blind, to undertake to bring order out of the confessed confusion by 

 appealing to facies." 



Mr. J. W. Douglas has described (E.M.M.) another new species of 

 Aleurodes under the name of A. sjriraeae, with excellent drawings of the 

 larva by Mr. E. F. Tugwell. 



*Tliis is very common. See Ent. Rcc. iii., p. 247. — Ed. 



