XYLINA LAMBDA, ETC. 127 



just placed in my hands for identification a very handsome Noctua. It 

 is the Xi/li)ia zinchrnii of Treitschke, and was taken by an incipient 

 entomologist last September, in the neighbom-hood of New Cross." 

 Referring to the same specimen, Mr. E. Newman says {Ento)n., 

 vol. iii., pp. 203-4) : " A single specimen .... is reported 

 to have been taken by Mr. Harrington on the trunk of a willow tree 

 near New Cross, on September 30th last." 



(2) Mr. Newman Avrites {Entoin., vol. iii., p. 227) : " No sooner do 

 we hear of a specimen of this novelty occurring at New Cross than a 

 second has been taken at Guildford ; it was sent up vmnamed to Mr. 

 Cooke, of Oxford Street; " whilst the Hon. Spencer Canning 

 (apparently the captor of this second specimen) writes {E.M.M., 

 vol. iii., p. 235) : " In the note I sent you some time ago I mentioned 

 having caught a Noctua of which I had not then found out the name. 

 I took it to an entomologist, and he wrote back that it was the 

 new species, Xijlina zinckcnii. It was taken at sugar on a young elm 

 tree in the month of October, between Dorking and Guildford." 



(3) Mr. J. Moore writes {Eiitoin., vol. v., p. 201): "I have to 

 record the capture of a most splendid specimen of X. zinckenii at 

 sugar, in Darenth Wood, on the 3rd of October. I took it from the 

 reverse side of the tree to that which I had sugared. I was accom- 

 panied at the time by Messrs. F. Standish, Pryer and other friends." 



(4) The following must be amongst the earliest captures of this 

 rarity (('/(/(', fv.il/.ill., vol. v.,p.252) : "A brother collector, a neighbour, 

 lately brought me a present, which he and his friends at the time 

 (October, 1865) considered a strange example of Acromjcta pd. At this 

 date it may be borne in mind that Dr. Knaggs had not identified 

 anything British-born with A', zinchenii. It appears that my friend 

 was out pupa digging in the northern environs of London, when, 

 rising from the root of a poplar, he was surprised to observe this fine 

 example of Avhat struck him as one of a second brood of A. pal at rest 

 upon the bark. He had neither pill nor collecting-box — merely a 

 small cradle for his ' diggings.' However, he fortunately had a pin 

 and a cylinder hat, in which the illustrious stranger was duly installed. 

 Until kindly taken out for me, it has ever since remained in his 

 duplicate box." 



(5) Mr. Carrington writes (Entoni., vol. ix., p. 191) : " Mr. Bond 

 has a fine example of A', lambda, taken near Erith,in September 1875, 

 by Mr. W. Marshall." 



The above five are the only British specimens known besides the 

 recent capture. Full descriptions of the vars. soiimiculosa and 

 zinckenii occur in The Ih-itidi Noctuae and their Varieties, vol. iii., 

 pp. 99-103. The variability is so great that the insect may easily be 

 overlooked, and its different forms should be carefully borne in mind 

 by collectors ; but most of the British specimens are, so far, of a form 

 bearing a distant superficial resemblance to Cuspidia jisi, to which 

 Fabricius a century and a quarter ago likened it. Of course this 

 resemblance is purely superficial. A close examination shows that it 

 is structurally very different — in shape, markings, general build, &c. 



Lycaena aegon var. Corsica on the Westmoreland Mosses. 



By HEEBEKT MASSEY, F.E.S. 

 Sooner or later, no doubt, we shall have to add Lycaena aiyiis to 



