SOME NAMED VARIETIES IN THE LARENTlID.t:. 249 



notes on varieties, which come under my notice, may be of some 

 interest. Mr. South, in the J'.'ntoiiioloi/ist (vol. xxv.) worked out 

 some of the principal varieties in the genus Mdanippe, but 1 am 

 afraid that most of us have but little idea on the whole as to what 

 Geometers have, on the Continent, received varietal names, and 

 there is consequently great danger of our unconsciously multiplying 

 synonyms. I subjoin a few notes on varieties and aberrations, to which 

 my attention has recently been directed. 



Eupithecia venosata, Fb. var. nubilata, Bohatsch (/r/.s, vi., p. 81). — 

 Herr Bohatsch, in 1893, gave this name to our well-known dark 

 Shetland form. 



E. di'notata, Hh. {ca)iipanulata, H.-S.) var. atraria,}i.S. 154. — We 

 are somewhat behind the times in refusing to restore Hiibner's name to 

 this species ; even Mr. Meyrick, who in his new work has made several 

 needful corrections which I was glad to see, has retained the later 

 name, campamdata, here. The form atraria, H.-S., has given a good 

 deal of trouble, but has now been satisfactorily determined by Bohatsch 

 as a large dark, mountain form of denotata, Hb. Its occurrence in 

 England is, so I should fancy, somewhat improbable ; at least, 1 am not 

 aware that we get the species from any essentially mountain district. 

 But as atraria, H.-S., was at one time supposed to be a melanic var. of 

 castiffata, the question has occurred to me whether it can have any con- 

 nection with our so-called "Paisley pug." By the way, there is one 

 curious thing about this " mountain form of denotata," if Bohatsch's 

 conclusions are correct; he adduces as a synonym the prunulata of 

 Milliere, which feeds upon the leaves of Frimula lati folia. 



E. virgaxireata, Dbld. var. altenaria, Stgr. [S.E.Z., 1861, p. 401). — 

 Bohatsch has recognised alte)taria,iitgi\ , as a northern form of rin/aureata, 

 smaller and more delicately built than the type-form, and with less 

 distinct markings. I do not know whether it would run as far as our 

 extreme unicolorous form. 



Melanippe .wciata, Bkh. var. de;/enerata, Hw. — Central fascia broken 

 into costal and inner-marginal blotch. It would be well worth while 

 to breed from a very narrow-banded female, if such were captured. 

 Sintenis {Sitzuwjs-berichte der Dorpater Naturf. Liescll., vii., 1886) 

 has figured a most interesting series of var. derjenerata and intermediates, 

 bred by him from a female of that description. 



M. snciata var. cint/ulata , Tgstr. ( Xotiser F. F. Fen n . , xiv. , p. 32) . — The 

 abdomen black with white rings ; Tengstrom mentions no other 

 difference from the type ; but, as would natiirally be conjectured, the 

 hind-wings are also much darkened, especially in the basal half. I 

 once bred six of this pretty form from a typical female from Sandown, 

 and it is interesting that all the rest of the brood (some 30) were 

 very uniform, and somewhat lii/Jitcr ths^n any which I have bred in two 

 other large broods, and which I assume to be the normal form. Thus 

 the 6 var. cini/idata (which were also pretty uniform inter se) con- 

 trasted most strikingly with their brethren. 



M. impFivata, Vill. {niontanata, Bkh.) var. degenerata, n. var. — 

 Staudinger's carelessness in chronology appears to have temporarily 

 saved the opponents of "priority" from another of the unwelcome 

 changes ; De Villers describes and figures (very recognisably) 

 iiiontanata, Bkh., as iinplieata, five years before the appearance of 

 Borkhausen's Geometer volume. I describe the variety de>/enerata as 



