200 THE entomologist's record. 



determinations as to the meaning of the older authors, and are com- 

 pelled practically to take Hiibner as our starting point. Alsines is 

 generally quoted, on Treitsclike's authority, as alsines, Brahm ; bvit 

 Brahm probably had both species, or possibly taraxaci only, before 

 him ; Illiger and Laspeyres agree in uniting his alsines with hlanda, 

 W.V., and his description * indicates that alsines is very variable, the 

 typical form being obscure brownish-grey, without the dark central 

 shade ; further, he expresses a suspicion that he may be dealing 

 with two closely-allied species. It seems almost equally unsafe to 

 ascribe the species to Borkhausen, who must also have united the two 

 — his hlanda being quite a different species, apparently Taeniocampa 

 pojmleti. I have therefore called it alsines, Hb. Hiibner considered 

 that there were three species in this group, wliich appear in his 

 Verzeichniss as: — 2,310, ('. hlanda, Schiff. Verz., L. 8: plantaginis, Hb. 

 576, and hlanda, 162. 2,311, C. alsines, Bork., 254 : Hb. 577. 2,312, 

 C. taraxaci, lib. 575. His hlanda=plantaginis, therefore, represents 

 a probable union of all the white hind- winged specimens (amhir/ua, Fb., 

 and superstes, Tr.) ; as recently as 1857 Lederer doubted the specific 

 distinctness of these two. 



Treitschke was the first to recognise that there were four species in 

 the group, and his very careful working of them out was based largely 

 on material supplied to him by Herr Georg Dahl, a celebrated collector 

 of the period, who had bred immense numbers, and had learned to 

 differentiate them in the larval state. Treitschke calls the four sjjecies ; 

 superstfs (first named by Ochsenheimer, described by Treitschke) ; ani- 

 higna ; hlanda ; alsines. The name hlanda has not been allowed to 

 stand, because, though the actual name dates back to the Vienna 

 Catalogue, yet neither Schiffermiiller's indications nor Fabricius' diag- 

 nosis is considered adecpiate for purposes of identification, and Hiibner 's 

 name taraxaci is prior to Treitsclike's description. 



Several attempts have subsequently been made to upset the specific 

 right of one or other of the group. In addition to Lederer's impossible 

 imion of amhigua and superstes, I may mention Guene'e's treatment of 

 superstes, as a probable var. of taraxaci, and the opinion of Snellen and 

 Van Leeuwen {Tijd. v. Ent., serie ii., vol. xvii., p. 133 ; vol. xviii., p. 

 135), that taraxaci was not sjiecifically distinct from alsines. On 

 grounds which I will now proceed to give, I consider that the specific 

 right of all four is well estaldished. I wish here gratefully to acknow- 

 ledge the willing and patient help given me by Messrs. J. A. Clark and 

 C. Nicholson, in connection with those investigations for which the 

 microscope has had to be called into requisition. 



(1). Dr. Speyer pointed out (Stett. ent. Zeit., xxviii., -p. 73. et.seq.), 

 " that the four older species of the alsines group, whose specific differ- 

 ence besides is under no doubt, also, in addition to the difference which 

 the colouring, &c., presents, admit of the recognition of one such, even 

 if slight and only appearing distinctly on comjjarison, in the ^ antenna?." 

 He then describes each in detail, and as I have personally verified his 



* Mr. Tutt probably looked up Brahm from Staudinger's incomplete 

 reference (Bralmi., II., p. lU) and was consequently led into writing (Brit. Nod., 

 I., p. 147) "Brahm only described the early stages," and into treating Bork- 

 hanseu's as the type description. As a matter of fact, Brahm's InsMen Kalender 

 is arranged in months, and tlie description (a most careful one) of the imago is to 

 be found at a later page (298) than that of the larva. — L.B.P. [Quite correct. En.] 



