80 [September, 



Eriopliorum (one of tho Cyperaceco), in a place where there is not a species of sallow 

 to be found. 



It is generally taken in the hot sunshine, flying from one tnft of Eriophorum to 

 another, and is never accompanied by C. lineola,, which, indeed, I have never taken 

 upon Chat-Moss, nor do I know of its ever occurring there at all. — J. Chappell, 

 18, Sheffield Street, Hulme, Manchester, Augn,st, 1865. 



[*4f* The above interesting note by my friend Mr. Chappell (who has most 

 kindly ceded to me one of the pair mentioned therein) appears to me to prove with 

 some certainty that the dai-k form hipustulatus is isolated from the type npon 

 Chat-Moss ; a circumstance not to be wondered at if there be truth in Darwin, — 

 seeing that Oaleruca caprece, Ancliomenus ericeti and others, Oonioctena litwra, 

 Notinphihts aquaticus and palustris, Pterostichus cupreus and lepidus, Chrysoinela 

 lamina, and other species, veiy frequently become black in colour when occurring on 

 moss or marsh. On the Continent, from the time of Gyllenhal to Schaum's Cat., 

 it has always been considered a variety of the protean C. hipunctatus, Linn. ; and 

 as that species feeds indiscriminately on such varied trees as hazel, beech, and 

 sallow, an extension of its pabular range is not surprising. 



The type form, hipunctatus {dispar, Payk.), has red elytra, with tho entire 

 margin, and a spot upon each, black : the next, lineola.. Fab., &c., has the spot 

 increased to a more or less broad longitudinal streak : this streak is so enlarged 

 in a thii'd var. as to make the bulk of the elytra black, leaving a narrow red rim, 

 but with the margin itself still black : in a fourth, the elytra are black, with a 

 somewhat crescent-shaped red spot at the apex, and another obsolete spot beneath 

 the scutollum : in a fifth (hipustulatus, Fab. ; higuttatus, Ubst.), the elytra are 

 black, with a spot at the apex either round and yellowish -red, or angulated and 

 red : and in a sixth they are entirely black. 



According to Gyllenhal, the two first appear to be common, the remainder 

 occurring sparingly. Both sexes are found of all the varieties, of which the three 

 first have been seen indiscriminately in copula, though they have not been observed 

 to mix with the three last (possibly on account of the latter being seldom seen at 

 all, owing to their rarity) ; and the male Uneola appears to be most frequently 

 joined to the typo form of the female. 



Gyllenhal admits that the specific identity of the three last vai'S. with the 

 three first is open to doubt, on account of their not having been found coupling ; 

 adding, however, that he has not been able to detect any distinctive mai*k beyond 

 colour. I have often tried to hit upon some separating point of structure, but the 

 increased powers of the microscope have failed in my hands to supplement the 

 intuitive acuteness of the above author. I have never seen or heard of British 

 examples of any but the vars. lineola and hipustulatus ; certain Scotch specimens 

 of the former of which (found on sallow) have the longitudinal stripe much broader 

 than the ordinary southern hazel-frequenting examples, and one (taken at 

 Camachgouran by Mr. Sharp in my presence) being so far advanced towards the 

 latter var., that it could not have failed to suggest the idea of the two being speci- 

 fically identical, even if such were not the generally received opinion. After seeing 

 the vars. of C. 10-punctatiis, the colour test for a species in this genus is valueless. 

 — E. C. E.] 



