SYKONTMIC NOTES ON ACtnALIA HUMItJATA AND A. DIMITARIA. 



i.-n 



Descriptton of Plate. — With regard to the figures, I would note 

 that tliey are diagrammatic, but .still quite accurate as to all points re- 

 ferred to in the i)a|)er, in other matters they may he even imaginative 

 and not to be depended on ; the only one ot" this class, however, of any 

 moment, is as to the antennal articulations, which are put in ad lih/'tum, 

 simply to make clear which are antennaj, but without reference to the 

 true number of the joints. 



^ynoriymic JNlotes oil ^cidalia humiliata and E. dilutaria. 



By LOUIS B. PROUT, F.E.S. 



The interesting discovery by the Messrs. Hodges of an .^c/cZa/m, new, 

 or almost entirely new, to Britain {Enf. Rec, vol. iv., -p. 28 ; Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., vol. xxix., p. 65), may be supposed to have re-awakened the 

 interest of British entomologists in the history and application of the 

 name osseafa, and of those other trivial names which are synonymicall}' 

 associated with it. With a view to the elucidation of the matter, I have 

 examined very carefully the Continental literature bearing upon it, and 

 have also availed myself of the oi)portuuities for study afforded liy the 

 present location of the fine Zeller series in tlie Natural History Museum 

 at South Kensington. An interesting synonymic note by Mr. Tutt 

 (Entom., vol. xxii., p. 121) was unfortunately rendered futile by the 

 circumstance tliat in the state of our knowledge at that time (1889) 

 there seemed good ground foi- sui»posing that tlie A. osseata and A. 

 iiiterjectarid of French authors were merely two forms of the same 

 species — our common British osxeata, Haw. ( "onsidering the amount 

 of work that Mr. Tutt gets through, which certainly shames most of us, 

 we cannot Idame him for not looking ujj every reference when prej)aring 

 the note referred to; but it is unfoitunate that he cited Mill. (Ic. (U, 7). 

 as applying to our species, apparently without verifying Staudingi-r's 

 reference ; had lie consulteil Millirrc, he would havi' found tlie tw«> 

 species under consideration ailim'iably figured, foi/ellirr irith thilr early 



