34 THE entomologist's record. 



as such were almost unknown. When it began {i.e., the business) it 

 spread by leaps and bounds, and speedily produced such men as 

 Parry, Button — " et id genus omne." I crossed the Channel (in 

 1869) in the same steamer as a dealer, who triumphantly showed 

 me D. compta on his setting-boards ! I observed a discreet silence. 

 Very shortly afterwards it was proved beyond dispute that he had 

 brought foreign pup;f with him from London so as to emerge at 

 Howth. But the most bare-faced fraud of all was the attempt to 

 palm off three specimens of (Huplnsia crenata as having been taken at 

 Howth ! Now the food of (i. irenata is strictly confined to poplar. 

 The island of Howth is about the last place in the world to take 

 G. crenata. I know Howth as well as I know my own house, andean 

 safely affirm that there has never been a poplar tree in it — at any rate, 

 not up to the time when this fraud was attempted. Per ruiitra, I 

 must speak in very high terms of HarAvood, of Colchester. I have 

 known him well for many years. Of course, strictly speaking, he is a 

 dealer, but far superior in every way to the average specimen, and, as 

 he is well-known, I am sure your readers will agree with me. It does 

 not affect me much, for, as I have already said, I have long since 

 ceased to feel any interest in " British " (?) rarities, and confine 

 myself to varieties, and interesting or unusual forms of common 

 things. I have, of course, some rarities, but they belong to a bye-gone 

 age. Some, as Laelia cae)iona, Aijrotis sulirosea, I'liihalapteru.i- pali/- 

 fjrajiimata, and others, I owe to my old and generous friend, the late 

 H. Doubleday ; and others to my own efforts, as Aporia mttacjii, 

 Pvlijonniiat^is acis (Noiniades seuiian/Hs), Lijcaeiia ariou, (ilnp/iisia 

 crenata, etc. I feel sure that (financially) all labels, localities, etc., 

 are utterly valueless, for the reason already given. 



An explanation of the Melanochroism occurring in certain Scotch 

 specimens of Tryphaena orbona, Hufn., Fab. (comes, Tr.). 



By J. W. TUTT.* 

 The various dark aberrations of this species which have been 

 obtained in certain areas of Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, Moray, 

 Sutherland, the Orkney Islands and the Isle of LeAvis, were for a time 

 unscientifically grouped under the name of ab. curtisii, Newm. In 

 British Noctnae ami their Varieties, Vol. ii., p. 96 (1892), the chief 

 dark forms were differentiated as follows : — 



1. Fore-wings dark brown with red costa = ab. curtisii, Newm. 



2. Fore-wings black = ab. >ii(iresce)is. 



3. Fore-wings black with red costa = ab. iiifo-iniircscens. 



4. Fore-wings black, hind-wings also almost black =: ab. iiiura. 



To combine the perfectly black and rich brown (with crimson 

 costa) specimens under the same aberrational name is absurd. 



There can be no doubt which form Newman meant to designate as 

 curtisii, for he quotes Curtis' figure and description, the latter 



"Brown with the costa reddish ; two pale strigae towards 



the base ; an oblique, oval, and an auriculate, stigma, with pale margins 

 and reddish centres, beyond which are two pale sinuated strigie, the 

 nervures between them pale, and bearing a row of dots, as well as the 

 posterior margin ; the inferior wings orange, fuscous at the base, the 



* With many thanks to Mr, McArtbur, 



