THE HABITS AND VARIATION OF PHRAGMATOBIA FULIGINOSA. 65 



In no wise does this race, as a whole, satisfy Staudingei-'s description 

 of fervida, as being '-larger, paler, with the hindwings ininiaceous with 

 few spots; " on the contrary, the form is darker, the hindwings of the 

 brightest rose-red, the spots well- developed and fairly numerous, and 

 only as an occasional J aberration does one observe the tendency to 

 the vermilion-tinted hindwings. The brood which we have here 

 described is that reared by Bacot in July, 1903, the parents of which 

 were captured at Pegomas in April, 1903. A second brood, parents 

 belonging to these July imagines, from ova laid in early July, was 

 reared by Bacot in September and October. These larvae were kept 

 indoors until the second week of August, they were then placed out- 

 of-doors until the second week in September. These produced some 

 70 imagines (exhibited) in September and October, and the influence 

 of the month spent out-of-doors in our climate is apparent ; the moths 

 are much smaller, the sexes are very similar in size and tint, the scaling 

 (of both sexes) much less dense (reminding one somewhat of the typical 

 northern race), the spots on the hindwings (especially of the 5 s) with 

 a tendency to join together, the whole facies of the brood such that 

 one might almost refer it bodily to our south British var. appron-i- 

 niata. In the later-emerging examples of Bacot's first brood (August- 

 October) there is also a tendency for the spots to unite into vianiinata 

 form. 



I have said that Staudinger described {Cat., 2nd ed., p. 59) a south 

 European form under the name of fervida. His description reads : — 



Major, dilutior, alls antei'ioribus rufescentibus, alls posterioribus miniacei^, 

 maculis paucis nigris. 



The only specimens that I have ever taken of this form were those 

 that I have already referred to as being captured in numbers in 

 August, 1901, at the electric lamps in the city of Turin. These have 

 the forewings distinctly paler (more orange in the ground colour), the 

 hindwings markedly miniaceous {i.e., weak vermilion or salmon-colour 

 tint), with the hind marginal spots much reduced in number and size, 

 and I have little doubt that Staudinger described fervida from similar 

 specimens. Ovenden, who also reared a brood of imagines in Septem- 

 ber-October, from ova supplied by Bacot in July, and which are, 

 therefore, cousins to Bacot's September-October brood, has sent 50 of 

 the resultant imagines for exhibition, and these show markedly a 

 general leaning to the fervida form ; for, although like Bacot's 

 September- October brood, smaller than the July brood, they appear 

 on the whole to be slightly larger than their cousins, rather better 

 scaled, have paler-coloured forewings, more miniaceous hindwings, 

 smaller hind-marginal spots, and exhibit no tendency to assume the 

 inarijinata or banded form. But it must be observed that, whilst 

 Bacot's larvae braved our out-of-doors climate for a month, the other 

 brood was carefully nurtured in a greenhouse where the temperature 

 was always pretty high, and this possibly is the cause of the difference 

 between the two broods. I have two specimens of the Italian type 

 sent me as natives of the Isle of Man. Mr. Rayuor exhibited, at the 

 last meeting, six fine examples from the " Briggs " collection, that 

 came from Cooke, the dealer in Museum Street. I have no evidence 

 to prove these specimens were not taken in the Isle of Man or 

 Museum Street, but I suspect they had parents that lived south of the 

 Alps of Central Europe. 



