i^otES ON THE ZVG^ENIDES. 105 



members of the South London Entom. i^ociety, 1893, says : — "In 

 nature, I have observed and taken hybrids between Anthrnccra jilipen- 

 diilat' and A. trifolii. These are gregarious species, and it is in 

 certain localities only that tiocks of the two are found in company. 

 My experience of more than fifty years' collecting on the South Downs 

 is that A. jilipcndulae only occurs on those chalk-hills; but in the 

 Weald of Sussex, the two species are often found together, and from 

 the experiments made by Mr. Fletcher, it appears that hybrids are 

 easily obtained between them in confinement " [I'roc. Sth. Land. I\nt. 

 Soc, 1898, p. 92). In 1892, South writes that, on June 11th, in a 

 meadow about half-way between Eickmansworth and Northwood 

 stations, " Ino staticcs, Ziji/aoia filipendidae and Z. trifolii were all 

 out," and that he " secured some nice specimens of each of the latter, 

 including two examples of the confluent form of the last-named 

 species. Both species were flying together" {Kntuni., xxv., p. 178). 

 Barrett writes : — " Weir has met Z. filipendidae paired with Z. trifolii 

 in damp meadows " [Brit. Lep., ii., p. 137). 



In March, 1893, I stated that "in a certain field in Kent, some 

 ten years ago, what is known as the small form of Zi/i/aeiia trifolii was 

 taken very abundantly during the first week in June. These speci- 

 mens were very characteristic, many of them being strikingly 

 blotched ; but occasionally an odd specimen was taken with six, 

 instead of five, spots on the fore-wings. The species afterwards got 

 very rare, and of the specimens captured, at least 50 per cent, had six 

 spots, although still retaining the small size and general characters of 

 the old five-spotted form. Two of the five-spotted specimens 

 captured in 1892, had their fore-wings taken off, and their bodies 

 forwarded to Mr. Pierce, of Liverpool, who examined the genital 

 organs, and returned them as undoubted Z. jilipcndidae. Knowing 

 their history completely, I felt satisfied that these represented the 

 development of a race of six-spotted Z. trifolii." " There were," I said, 

 " two suggestions open : (1) that we have a separate species 

 occurring in late May and early June, distinct from both Z. flipendulae 

 and Z. trifolii, which (like some of the Continental species) may be 

 either five- or six-spotted ; (2) that Z. plipendnlac and Z. trifolii, 

 although distinct enough in most localities, are, in others, in such a 

 transition state that they have the inherent ability to change from one 

 form to the other under certain conditions. The ease with which 

 Mr. Fletcher had hybridised the species seems to point to the latter 

 as a more probable conclusion." I then added that " both typical 

 Z. lonirercw and Z. fdipendidae occur in the immediate neighbourhood, 

 but that the former rarely appears until the form described above is 

 well over, whilst the latter is also a week or two behind Z . lonicerar " 

 {Tram. Knt. Soc. Loud., 1898, p. x). Paying particular attention to 

 the form, which was well out at the end of May, 1898, I observed that 

 out of about two hundred specimens taken, five only were absolutely 

 typical, the remainder having a tendency to assume a six-spotted 

 form, these, in most cases, being well marked and similar to Z. 

 niipendnlae {Proc. Stii. Loud. Knt. Hoc, 1898, p. 119). At the 

 meeting of the South London Ent. Soc, January 10th, 1895, in a 

 discussion following Mr, Tutt's account of a six-spotted race of 

 Zi/i/aena, having during the last fifteen years almost superseded a 

 family of the early Z. trifuUi in North Kent, " several members gave 



