1S86.] ■ 87 



and the costa is usually a little straighter, causing the fore-wings to be slightly nar- 

 rower, so that there would actually be less difBculty in finding characters to separate 

 the midland hill-frequenting forms from those of the south of England, than in 

 differentiating the two southern forms from each other as we have been in the habit 

 of doing. Nobody, however, supposes that there is any ground for doing this, and 

 a careful examination of the different midland forms seems to show that in their 

 variations, according to times of emergence, they do not follow the southern rule. 

 In my own recent visit to Staffordshire I took but one specimen — just out of pupa 

 on June 11th — which, from its time of emergence, should have been biimdularia, hut 

 which actually agreed far better with crepuscularia, only differing in the umbreous 

 instead of fulvous character of the brown markings. On June 19th, the Rev. C. W. 

 Thomewill, of Burton, also took a brown-lined specimen, very similar, and these 

 two are the nearest to the southern crepuscularia of any midland specimens that I 

 have seen. But previously to this, on May 29th, Mr. Thomewill had taken one 

 whitish and two grey specimens — veritable biundularia. Then again the specimens 

 mentioned {ante, p. 41) as taken in Derbyshire z'» ^/)ri7 were dark grey with the 

 whitish subterminal line, and others taken in the same place in June, are, some of 

 them, precisely similar, while others vary, darker and paler, some being nearly as 

 brown as the Staffordshire specimens. 



Many years ago I, with some difBculty, obtained eggs from specimens of hiun- 

 dularia taken at Haslemere, in order that Mr. Buckler might compare and 

 ascertain their points of distinction from those of crepuscularia. The larvae were 

 reared and figured, but Mr. Buckler was so little satisfied with the result that just 

 before his lamented death he was desirous of again rearing both forms from the egg, 

 in the hope of finding characters previously overlooked — a most unlikely result. 



Taking all these facts into consideration, it seems to me unreasonable to attempt 

 to keep up the purely artificial distinction between these two forms. They should 

 surely be united under the name of crepuscularia, W. V. 



If we admit that these forms constitute but one species, we are still confronted 

 by the remarkable phenomenon, for which no reasonable explanation seems to present 

 itself, that two races exist in the same localities, emerging at different periods, and 

 presenting a constant difference in the shade of colour. We know that the hitmdu- 

 laria which emerge in May, are not the offspring of the April crepuscularia, and, 

 as far as investigation has gone, we find that the offspring of each form emerges at 

 the same time as its parents, and presents the same characteristics — setting aside the 

 few which feed up quickly and emerge the same season, and exhibit similar characters 

 in a modified form. We have, in fact, a curious instance of dimorphism in both 

 sexes.— Chas. G. Baeeett, 68, Camberwell Grove, S.E. : July 2^Md, 1886. 



Cidaria immanata : variety of the larva. — On August 25th, 1885, Mr. C. G. 

 BaiTett sent me from Belfast eggs of this species ; I kept them through the winter 

 out-of-doors on growing moss in a flower pot, and at the end of March, 1886, I 

 found four larvae just hatched ; the rest died in the egg ; the first of the four larvre 

 spun up on 18th May, the last on 5th June ; the first moth appeared 11th June, the 

 fourth 26th June ; all through, these examples agreed with previous descriptions, 

 except in one particular ; one of the lai'vse as it grew large showed a sub.<;piracular 



