48 [Febrnarjr, 



There seems to be little doubt that these August specimens were tlie offspring 

 of those which emerged and passed away so early in the summer, and also that their 

 small size was the result of rapid feeding up. But their exact coincidence with 

 Scottish var. conflua is most remarkable, since it appears among the Scottish hills as 

 the representative of novYaoXf estiva, not as a second brood, while the var. conflua 

 does not seem to have previously occurred near Dublin. I have before me Mr. 

 Hart's /e^i'iya of previous seasons, they are quite normal, except that they do not 

 quite equal in size the largest southern specimens. 



Perhaps the most curious circumstance in connection with these small August 

 specimens is that one of them differs from the rest in having more pointed fore- 

 wings of a darker colour, being an exact representative of the darker Shetland 

 variety, which at first sight looks so very different from the ordinary forms o^festiva. 

 — CnAS. Gr. Bakrett, 39, Linden Grove, Nunhead, S.E. : December 14tth, 1891. 



Amphidasis hetularia, var. Douhledayaria. — Perhaps it will interest you to 

 know that your English Amphidasis ah. Douhledayaria, Mill., is spreading all over 

 the Continent. During the last five or six years this black form has been recorded 

 from about a dozen places in Holland and Grermany. Formerly it had never been 

 taken on the Continent. I can give you the following particulars. It was taken — 



June 9th, 1884, near Hanover, 1 ^ , Aug. Hoffmann. 



before 1888, from Dordrecht and Grave, Netherlands, P. C. T. Snellen. 



before 1888, from Gotha, Thuringia, F. Kapp. 



1888, from Melle, near Osnabriick, 1 ex. larva, T. Heydenreich. 



1890, Aachen, 1 ? , Rhineland, O. Wackerzapp. 



1891, Rheydt, near Diisseldorf, 1 $ , Rhineland, Piingeler. 

 1891, Diisseldorf, several specimens, Rhineland, Piingeler. 

 1891, Eutin, Holstein, 1 ? , intermediate form, Aug. Hoffmann. 



The form seems to come up the Rhine, so it is the more curious that I found 

 the first specimen near Hanover. — August Hoffmann, Eutin, Holstein : Dec, 1891. 



[It is a matter of general knowledge, I think, that this singular melanic form of 

 our common " pepper " moth was almost unknown thirty years ago, and that the 

 first specimens caused quite a sensation in this country, also that in its special home 

 in the hill districts of Derbyshire, Lancashire, and the adjoining counties, it has 

 been increasing from year to year in proportionate numbers until it is now in some 

 districts the predominant form. — C. G. B.]. 



Leucania extranea, Guen. (= unipuncia, Saw.), in the Isle of Furbeck.— l am 

 delighted to be able to record the occurrence of this very rare species in the Isle of 

 Purbeck, as I was fortunate enough to take a beautiful specimen at sugar in our 

 shrubbery on the night of October 12th last. To judge from its condition, and the 

 spot where it was taken, it seems highly improbable that it flew from any distance, 

 and the sea at the nearest point — an indented coast-line, quite away from the track 

 of any vessels — is 3i miles away. It was one of those evenings when a good deal 

 of' courage is required to make up one's mind to turn out after insects at all, and I 

 quite expected that it would be only a waste of time, as it was chilly (47° F.), com- 

 pared witli the previous evenings, with occasional torrents of rain. As it happened. 



