lOG THE entomologist's RECORb. 



instances of a small six-spotted Zi/z/aena being taken in early June in 

 various localities." These references, which have come to hand 

 without much trouble and I feel certain by no means exhaust the 

 records, refer exclusively to the occurrence of the early six-spotted 

 Zi/iiaena (described by Stephens as /lippocrepidis), with the early five- 

 spotted Z. trifulu. 



There are now two or three records so general in their nature as 

 to be almost useless for any scientific purpose, which may or may 

 not refer to the hippocrepidis of Stephens, or to the parallel aberration 

 of Z. jilipcndulae. The dates of the captures, and other par- 

 ticulars, would have made the records valuable. In 18iS2, Barrett 

 records that two very interesting specimens of Z. jilipendulae were 

 exhibited at a meeting of the local (Pembroke) Field Club. "In one 

 of them the posterior (or sixth) red spot on the anterior wings was 

 entirely absent, and in the other only faintly traceable, so that both 

 might easily have been passed over as 'five-spotted.' They have, 

 however, the very narrow blue-black border to the hind-wings, and 

 the form and general characters of Z. Jilipendulae, and were reared 

 with a number of ordinary examples of that species from cocoons 

 found in one of the hollows of the coast-cliffs, Avhere no other species 

 of 2r////a<'«a is found " {E.M.M., xix., pp. 21-22). Commenting on 

 this, C. A. Briggs says : — " I have always been somewhat inclined to 

 look on these forms as hybrids between Z. tri/olii and Z. /ilipcudulae, 

 and should, therefore, have expected to find that Z. ^^//uZ/j occasionally 

 occurs on the summit of the cliffs to which Mr. Barrett alludes, but, 

 either from its early appearance, or from the summit not being so 

 much worked, had been overlooked. The aberration in which the 

 sixth spot is entirely absent is far the scarcer, and as, so far as my 

 experience goes, it is confined to the female specimens, it would be 

 interesting to know whether the specimen referred to by Mr. Barrett 

 is a female or not. In the specimens I have seen, the absent spot is 

 always to be found on the under-side, so, beyond the question of 

 hybridism, no doubt as to identity exists " {E.M.M., xix., p. 43). In 

 1888, Meyrick writes that, at Marlborough, " a colony of Z . Jilipendulae 

 frequenting a small patch of heath, was remarkable, in that the sixth 

 spot of the fore-wings was, in fully three-fourths of the individuals, 

 greatly reduced in size, sometimes, indeed, so inconspicuous that it 

 might well have been passed over as absent. As, in the other fourth, 

 the spot was of its usual size (with connecting links), and as there 

 appears to be no other definite difierence between the forms, I suppose 

 we have here a case of an individual variation becoming prevalent 

 through isolation ; or might the colony possibly have been crossed 

 with one of the five-spotted species ? I observed no specimens showing 

 this variation among other colonies in the district ; and where the 

 species are so little defined as in this genus, it appears worthy of 

 record" {E.M.M., xxv., p. 184). In the report of the exhibits of the 

 City of Lond. Ent. Soc. for February 21st, 1893, we read that Mr. 

 J. E. Robson exhibited specimens of " Zy//«c»rt fHipendnlae with five 

 spots on the fore-wings " {Ent. Bee, iv., p. 125). 



As I said at the commencement of this paper, these remarks are 

 purely tentative, and written with the view of obtaining some exact 

 observations on these species. We do not want opinions, nor 

 generalisations (except from those who capture both forms), as neither 



