80 THK entomologist's iiecokd. 



easily followed by the drawing than by any verbal description." Mr. 

 C. Fenn remarked that he had " repeatedly bred both species, and had 

 always found that the two species bred true ; he had also observed 

 differences between the two larvas " {Ibid., p. 25). 



I have elsewhere in this paper (ante, vol. viii., p. 285) stated that I 

 disagree with the diagnoses of these species made by the Eev. G. A. 

 Smallwood {Entom., xix., p. 162). He states, among other things, that 

 " crejnm-idaria is smaller, and has the second line followed by a more 

 decided band of brown." Now, there is no doubt that hiundularia is 

 distinctly the smaller species, and that when crcjmsndaria is smaller 

 than hhnvhdaria, as is the second brood, the specimens are of a dead 

 white (with a tinge of leaden hue) and have rarely any trace of a 

 brown band, and one can only assume, from his remarks (Ibid., p. 181), 

 where he states that he had specimens of the " pure cold grey " second 

 brood of T. creiniscidaria, that he was, as he practically owned, 

 irretrievably mixed. His remarks on Newman's and South's broad 

 terms of distribution are probably just, so far as regards the possibility 

 of the published records, both here and abroad, being unsatisfactory, 

 owing to the inability of many entomologists to distinguish biundu- 

 laria and crepuftcidaria, but we demur altogether to his conclusion, 

 and to the strange use he makes of a quotation from Doubleday's 

 List (1873), where Doubleday's explanatory notes he considers point 

 to " the overwhelming authority of Esper, Haworth and Guen6e, for 

 saying that T. crepnscnlaria and T. binndularia are varieties only of 

 one species, while Doubleday stands alone as the advocate of a second 

 species." Certainly Esper figured both species under the same name, 

 but so he did dozens of other species, whilst Haworth was so inex- 

 tricably mixed that the two species occur, in some form or other, 

 under at least three names. Stephens and Wood not only advocated 

 two, but actually made four, species out of them, and one can only 

 regret that Mr. Smallwood so readily fell into the same pitfall as do 

 most English lepidopterists who tell us what the old authors do, 

 ?!f5., take for granted some one else's statement as to what they say, 

 instead of finding out for himself what they really do say. 



I would not trouble you to compare carefully the drawer of 

 T. bijindidaria with the two drawers of T. ercpnscnlaria, but Mr. 

 Barvett {Pnic. St/i. Lond. Knt. Soc, 1890, p. 25) says: — "Similar 

 forms (to the German specimens) have been found in the middle and 

 north of England." Probably Mr. Barrett has some, but for all that 

 I ask you whether there are any north English specimens like the 

 German specimens?*-' Mr. Barrett further says that " the shape of the 

 wings in the two forms is absolutely identical." I again ask 

 whether you do not all discern a marked difference in the shape of the 

 squarer-winged bitmdidaria, in which the breadth is greater, com- 

 pared with the length. He further states that the difference between 

 the two species is "merely one of colour." I ask you again to say, 

 after careful comparison, whether that is so ; and lastly, I would ask 

 you to compare carefully the small specimens of the second brood of 

 crepiiKcxdaria with biundnlaria, and say whether " the second brood of 



* Mr. Barrett exhibited his German specimens, which were a mixture of 

 T. creimscularia and the dark ab. of hmndularia. The latter are, therefore, very 

 similar to those forms which are so common in the middle and north of England, 

 — J.W.T. 



