286 tHE entomologist's recop.d* 



rrepiisrnlaria and May hiwuhdaria are one brood of the same species, 



(2) that the May hinndidaria is the second brood of rrcpusctdaria, or, 



(3) that the second brood of rrfpimularia is typical hlunilidaria. In 

 fact, we doubt whether we could have stated our own views so well as 

 he has stated them for us. 



Now, Mr. Snaallwood having laid his own ghost, we are con- 

 fronted by Mr. South. He {Entoin., xix., pp. 269 — 272) recognises 

 that the difference of opinion which had arisen was a matter of 

 definition, and that the point in disagreement was — " What consti- 

 tutes a species?" He then refers to his own series of the species 

 which came from various British localities, and compares individual 

 specimens. " The palest specimen is one of the Wiltshire detach- 

 ment, taken end of March, and the darkest normal examples are the 

 Perthshire contingent," and so on. He also compares the month of 

 capture of the various specimens, quite leaving out the year of cap- 

 ture, on which everything depends, and after this uncritical procedure, 

 in which, having shown that one of the Wiltshire specimens is the 

 " palest in the series," and another Wiltshire specimen "has a brown 

 tinge," and that " other examples of the Wiltshire group are as like 

 Essex June specimens as this insect from widely distant localities can 

 be," he sums up, "that the insects from both localities are of the 

 same species, and as such I certainly regard them." Mr. South then 

 adds, that " the fact of an insect appearing in the perfect state at three 

 distinct periods of the year is exceptional only in one respect — that is, 

 the first and third flights of crcjnisciildyid would appear to be quite 

 independent of the second or middle brood." The rest of Mr. South's 

 note is beside the question, except one remark. This occurs at the 

 end of a speculative exercise, in which Mr. South considers that the 

 day may come when only the double -brooded ci-rpmcidaria will occur 

 in the South of England, and the single-brooded biuiidularia in the 

 North, and then concludes : — " The British entomologist of the future, 

 who may consider the double-brooded insect of the South distinct from its 

 single-brooded brother of the North, will, perhaps, have nothing more 

 trustworthy than colour and ornamentation to guide him in forming 

 his separate series of each, unless he should consider all northern 

 specimens hiidniidaria, and all southern examples vri})us()duria, 

 without regard to such unstable characters as marking and coloration" 

 [Ibid, p. 272). Now, does it not strike you that Mr. South rather 

 gives his case away when he surmises that " the entomologist of the 

 future will, perhaps, have nothing more trustworthy than colour and 

 ornamentation to guide him," considering that he has taken about a 

 page of print to show that colour and ornamentation are, so far. as he 

 can discover, absolutely useless, even at the present time, to separate 

 Wiltshire rrrpiiscidaria from Essex hinndidaria .' And is not the 

 assumption of the "double-brooded insect of the South" in contra- 

 distinction to its " single-brooded brother of the North," entirely mis- 

 leading ? Tcphrosia crepuscular i a is not a double-brooded southern 

 species. It is partially double-brooded in our southern counties, 

 and single-brooded in Perthshire, whilst the so-called single-brooded 

 species of the north — biimdularia — swarms in many localities in the 

 southern counties, and does not reach so far north as Perthshire or 

 Scandinavia, where rrepiiscidaria occurs. I am afraid some deeper 

 biological studies will have to be made before Mr. South can hope to 



