TUE GENUS CARAUllINA, ETC. 203 



brood feeding up very rapidly, so that there would hardly be any 

 period of summer when some specimens might not be found ; see the 

 notes by Mr. A. J. Hodges (Ent. Eec, vol. vi., p. 42, etc.) on the 

 appearance of the species in Guernsey. 



The sole claim, at present, of snperstes to a place in the British list 

 rests on the capture of two specimens liy Mr. Tutt at Deal in July, 

 1886. In working up the material for his valuable British Noctuae and 

 their Varieties, j\[r. Tutt detected the agreement of these two specimens 

 with continental examples received as superstes, as well as with 

 Herrich-Schaeffer's figures. On the strength of this, he introduced 

 the si^ecies as British {op. cit., vol. i., p. 145). It is carefully and 

 accurately diagnosed and described on pp. 148-9 ; but the Sligo 

 specimens, reported as a probable var., seem to me to be certainly a 

 local form of taraxaci, and, if so, snperstes var. snffasa, Tutt, must 

 uncpiestionably sink ; the Isle of Wight specimens in (question all 

 belong to ambiijna. The confusion which subsequently resulted from 

 the unfortunate transposition of the names has been cleared up by Mr. 

 Tutt (Ent. Bee, vol. vi., p. 53); and I take this occasion to ajijologise 

 for some further difficulty which has arisen from my somewhat hastily- 

 formed opinions expressed at a meeting of this Society last October 

 (Ent. Rec, vol. vi., p. 'Z2), that probably superstes was not truly 

 British at all ; that opinion was based on such knowledge as I then 

 possessed, but I had not at that time seen Mr. Tutt's Deal specimens ; 

 and it was, I hope, excusable, since the Deal specimen figured (Ent. 

 Rec, vol. iv., jdI. C, tig. 4) happens to be, as I then assumed, an ochreous 

 var. of amhiijua. The history of tive large specimens from Deal, which 

 are in Mr. Tutt's collection, is so curious, that it will be worth while to 

 go into it in detail. Mr. Tutt, whose quick eye for determining 

 NocTU.E is pretty well known, had sorted out these five from his 

 ainhigna simply by eye, and had set them down as probable superstes ; 

 and when I quoted Fuchs' notes on the different time of ajipeai'ance of 

 the two allies, he obtained what appeared to be a striking confirmation 

 of his determination ; all these five were captured (in fine condition) in 

 July, while all his numerous ambiijna were dated June or August ! Mr. 

 Tutt then kindly permitted me to study the specimens, which resulted 

 in my considerable bewilderment ; I had thoiight I could separate the 

 two species pretty readily, but I made one of them "certainly sujyerstes," 

 another " ju'etty certainly the same," two " pretty certainly amhigua,'' 

 and the fifth "a puzzle, probably an ochreous var. of awbii/ua." They 

 were all larger than normal ambiijna, and the fact that they formed a 

 kind of transition to his largest and most superstes-\\ke Deal ainbijua, 

 combined with the simultaneous discovery that ambi(jua on the Continent 

 did possess also a large form, led me, on reflection, again to doubt 

 whether any of them were really snperstes. You may judge, therefore, 

 of my satisfaction when I discovered, from Speyer's notes, already 

 quoted, how widely different were the J antennae of the two species. 

 Fortunately, Mr. Tutt's five specimens were all males, though the 

 " puzzle " (which 1 take to be the specimen figured in the Record, 

 loc. cit.) was a puzzle in another way, for its abdomen looked quite 

 different from those of the other males, and almost as nearly like that 

 of a $ . Messrs. Clark and Nicholson will support my testimon}'^ that 

 it is inqjossible to confound the antenna; of the two species, and that wo 

 may confidently claim snperstes as British, though only twu of Mr. 



