AMONG THE ANClEKTS. 123 



short strong spike. Dark red brown, wing cases and dorsal shade ill- 

 defined, often not indicated by colour. 



Ferrugaria var. salicaria (Scotch form from Eannoch), described 

 19th July, 1875. This form is, I believe, single-brooded. 



Larva. — Elongate (stouter than the English form), slightly attenu- 

 ated anteriorly : head rounded, face shining, spots raised. Ochreous 

 with a pink tinge, mottled and shaded with grey on the anterior segments 

 A series of large pale dorsal diamonds, each containing a conspicuous 

 black spot, from 5th to 10th segments ; on the remaining segments is 

 often a dark grey dorsal line. The anterior half of each of these 

 diamonds is outlined with black and filled up with pinkish, thus form- 

 ing a triangle with blunt apex, having a black spot below the base. 

 Sub-dorsal and a line below it waved, thread-like, of a jjaler shade than 

 the gTOund colour. Sjiiracular line dark grey, spiracles black. Belly 

 and sides below the spiracles pale pinkish-ochreous, sometimes ochreous 

 or reddish. A pale ventral band, edged with a brown shade, containing 

 two black lines, and with a row of prominent marginal black sjjots, 

 one on each segment, from the 4th to the 10th. 



Piqm. — Highly polished, moderately stout. Anal extremity with a 

 short strong spike. Bright red brown, wing cases and dorsal shade 

 darker brown. 



" From these descriptions you will observe that there is really more 

 difference between the form sa licaria hndferriu/aria than between the latter 

 and unidentaria. In the one, mention is made of dorsal diamonds and 

 in the other, of triangles, but the variety supplies the connecting link 



and explains the reason The three larvee are practically 



identical, the exaggeration or obliteration of the markings of the one 

 would make the description of the other apply. Here again we have 

 the colour difficulty ; they are (I allude to our English species) so 

 excessively variable that mere colour is no guide. Of the Scotch form 

 I had only some eighteen or twenty larvje and they did not vary much, 

 but this is too small a number on which to base an oj^inion. 



" The pupce again seem the same, allowing for the colour question " 

 (C. Fenn. in litt., 4th March, 1893). 



The larva3 of both species are very general feeders; as already 

 communicated to some meml)ers of this Society, I generally breed mine 

 when at home on the common garden marigold. 



In conclusion, I have only to tender my best thanks collectively to 

 the very many entomologists (too numerous to mention individually) 

 who have freely given me all the information and assistance in their 

 power in these, to me, most interesting investigations and studies. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



I HAD often wondered when it was that insects first began to have 

 fancy values put on them simply because they were British. In my 

 own mind I had settled that it was not till after the days of Hawortli, 

 and might probably date from the time Avhen Curtis and Stephens o-ave 

 such a mighty lift to British entomology. That there were dealers in 

 insects long before this time I did not imagine, and it was with some- 

 thing of a shock that I found Ha worth apologising for a blunder which 



