OPORABIA FILIGRAMMARIA. 291 



many Continental) lepidopterists with examples about half-a-century 

 ago. His remarks, therefore, should prove interesting. Rewrites : — 

 " This species (0. Jili(/raiiin)aria) is smaller than O. appro.cimaria, 

 particularly the male, which varies in size, colour and markings. I 

 captured a good number of it some years ago, high on the side of 

 Goat Fell, Isle of Arran. I found them only in one spot. The search 

 for this insect is a laborious task ; I found it by parting the heath 

 with my hands, and steadfastly looking at the stems of the heath, for 

 there they rest by day. They are so completely wrapped round the 

 heath as to be easily overlooked, and greatly resemble a ring of grey 

 moss that grows in similar situations " (XooL, 1852, p. 8496). 



Staudinger [('atahxjw, p. 187) treats Weaver's jili(/raiiniiaria, 

 approriinaria and pnrursaria as synonymous with the typical form, a 

 remarkable conclusion, considering that Weaver himself diagnoses them 

 and points out their differences ; they must, it seems, have at least an 

 aberrational value. He also makes the ab. autuiiinaria of Doubleday 

 and Guenee synonymous with the jiolata of Westwood {Jiritisfi Moths, 

 ii., p. 56, PI. 68, Fig. 9), and diagnoses it as " MsLJovdiliitinr.''' I am in- 

 formed by Mr. Prout that in this Staudinger is certainly wrong, for 

 although ab. autuiiinaria, \)h\([. = polata, Westwood, this aberration is 

 not the autumnaria of Guenee. Staudinger also gives as the range of 

 0./i7?//ra»n/mn'a " N. England, Scotland and (?) Lapland." Guenee 

 writes that "0 JiUiimiiiiiiaria is without doubt veryneartoO. (//Z!(toto,of 

 Avhich species Herrich-Schilft'er seems inclined to consider it a variety. 

 It is still nearer to autuinnaria, ^Hw. '' {noiowv^v'iiisYxiovxwoi (hiJilutata 

 of the same name), " but is always smaller. The superior wings are 

 narrow and more pointed at the apex. The ground-colour is always 

 violet-grey, with the bands darker and more combed (or marked) with 

 black ; the line which forms the edge of the basal space is straighter 

 and more oblique. The median space is almost always black, and it 

 forms a sharp angle*'* in the cellule. The little band which follows it 

 is more oblique. The lower wings have always a dark band near the 

 margin, surmounted above by two equidistant and almost parallel 

 lines." Guen^e's description appears to have been made from speci- 

 mens taken by Mr. Weaver in the Isle of Arran. He adds that 

 " the caterpillar feeds on Calluna vul[/aris," and that "the perfect 

 insect rests during the day with the wings folded round the stems of this 

 plant, where it requires some skill to discover it" {Phalenit.es, x., p. 265). 

 Guenee refers the pale violet-grey insect known as ab. autumnaria, 

 Dblday., to this species. This is now usually considered, I believe, 

 to be a form of 0. lUlutata. I am inclined to agree (but am in no 

 wise very certain) that the appro.dmaria of Weaver really does belong 

 to O. Jiliijrainiiiaria, and not to (K dilutata, a conclusion at which 

 Guenee (probably guided by Doubleday) also arrives. Weaver writes 

 of 0. appro.vimaria, that it is to be " distinguished from O . autumnaria 

 by the formation of the superior wings of the female, which are 

 pointed, and are also of a smaller size, having a resemblance to 

 O. jili<irammaria, and forms a link between the two species. The 

 males are very variable in size, and some specimens are very dark, in 

 fact there are more dark than light ones. I captured a good number 



* This refers to the > -shaped mark at the bifurcation of the median nervure 

 where it leaves the discoidal cell. The dark nervures, often much broken^ are very 

 interesting. 



