December, 1886.] 245 



OCCUERENCE OF BOTYS REPAyDALIS, SCHIFF., IN BEITAIN. 

 BY C. a. BAB.RETT, F.E.S. 



The Rev. Henry Burney has forwarded to me for examination 

 specimens of a pretty little yellow Pyralis reared by him some years 

 ago, but which he had set aside under the impression that they 

 belonged to a common species. I find they are certainly Botys repan- 

 dalis, Schiff., agreeing accurately with specimens sent me by the late 

 Prof. Zeller. Mr. Burney tells me that he found the larvae in June 

 feeding in the heads and young shoots of Verhascum nigrum on the south 

 coast of Devon. They were yellowish-white with black spots, and fed 

 on the young leaves, eating down into the shoots, but left the plant 

 when full-grown, and assumed the pupa state among the debris at the 

 bottom of the breeding cage, the moths emerging in the following 

 month. This pretty species has not, I believe, hitherto been recorded 

 in this country, but is not uncommon in central and southern Europe. 

 It is very closely allied to hyalinalis and pandalis, but of a paler 

 yellow, and decidedly smaller than either, being of about the size of 

 verhascalis, but with narrower fore-wings. The fore-wings are of a 

 delicate pale straw-colour, and the markings, which closely resemble 

 those of hyalinalis, are of a faint yellowish-grey. The first line is 

 comparatively straight, the second also straight from the middle of the 

 dorsal margin to the middle of the wing, where it touches the discal 

 streak or stigma, then turns abruptly towards the hind margin and 

 makes a wide sweep before turning again towards the costa ; the 

 third is parallel with the hind margin. These three lines are continued 

 upon the silky whitish hind- wings. ^ 



Dr. E. Hofmann describes the larva : — 



" Thick, tapering anterioi'ly, yellow-wliite, with many single hair-bearing raised 

 dots. Head honey-yellow, dorsal plate of the colour of the body, studded with 

 warts. From March until May, and in July, in the leaves of Verbascum in a felted 

 mixture of fragments of the plant. Assuming the pupa state in a red-brown cocoon. 

 Imago in June and August ; widely distributed." 



Treitschke says (under the name of pallidella) : 



" The larva; live gregariously from March to May, and the next brood in July, 

 among the leaves of Yerbascum thapsus and thapsoides, in a mixture of silk and the 

 down of the plant, or in the flower shoots in a little passage eaten down into the 

 stem. They are yellow, with black dots. Pupa yellow." 



This species is a welcome and extremely interesting addition to 

 the British fauna. 



King's Lynn, Norfolk : 



November \Zth, 1886. 



