NOTES ON A TRIP TO THE SIEKKA 1)E LA DKMANDA AND MONCAYO. 141 



The fact that /'. jiniinata has a grey form in the south of France, and 

 that Milliere succeeded in muddhng them up, goes a long way to sup- 

 port my idea. In vol. iii., p. 463, of the IcdiKHjraphic, Milliere says 

 that he has figured /'. rovonillaria Avhen presenting a grey var. of P. 

 njtimria, implying that there is no grey var. of P. ci/tisaiia, but, in 

 vol. ii, he says that the larva' of P. ci/tuaria yield about an eighth of 

 the imagines of a grey colour, and one of them it is he figures, and 

 refers to it in vol. iii. as being /'. cnnmillaria, an opinion accepted by 

 Staudinger {('ot., 1901, part i, 2H61). His explanation leaves it to appear 

 that /'. cytimria has an eighth part of grey forms, but instead of 

 figuring one of these he inadvertently figured /'. i-onmillaria. In any 

 case he confounded the two, and in his correction left so much con- 

 fusion that one concludes he was still unable to distinguish grey 

 l\ priiiiiata from P. coroniUaria. Rambur's P. carsicaria would seem to 

 be abundantly distinct, and the real ground, so far as I know, for regard- 

 ing P. coroniUaria and P. pruinata [cytisaria) as distinct from each other, 

 is that Rambur was clearly of opinion that they were so, and T am quite 

 willing to allow that I am probably more likely to make an error in 

 such a matter than Rambur, whose powers of observation and judg- 

 ment in such matters command my greatest respect, more than do 

 those of many more widely-known authorities, but I am not aware of 

 any definite attempt to prove or disprove their identity since the time 

 of Rambur and Milliere. I have handed the Geometrids taken to Mr. 

 Prout, who has examined them. One of his observations on them is 

 that they contain a smaller proportion of characteristically Spanish 

 species than those taken in previous years further south. This accords 

 with my general impression in collecting that the species of general 

 European aspect were proportionally preponderant to a degree, that 

 suggested one was working in, perhaps, southern France rather than 

 Spain — that is, as compared with my impressions in 1901 and 1902. 

 Knrranthis /lenniiieraria was certainly the most notable, and perhaps 

 abundant, (leometrid we saw. We first found it near Canales at a low 

 level, large specimens, but rather rare and all worn. Later we met 

 with it in immense numbers on the ridge to the north of Canales, or 

 rather just below the ridge on the south slope amongst Krica arhorea, 

 where the heath was rampant and the scrub-oak disappearing. Here 

 it was not too easy to catch, though its abundance left no difficulty in 

 the way of taking a fair series. It occurred less freely in a good 

 many other places, and was seen on Moncayo. We met with no 

 larv* of either (hnofiijna zoraida or Arctia latreillii ; they do not 

 probably occur in these sierras. 



The Asilids were not seen in any numbers on this excursion, being less 

 abundant here than in the drier and hotter regions further south. Several 

 were, however, noted with beetles and other insects on their proboscids. 

 Another experience, however, with diptera reminded me of M. 

 Graslin's account {AiinaU's de la Sue. Hnt. de France, 1886, p. 556) of 

 how Asilids would pounce on moths the moment he disturbed them 

 from the grass and left him grievously disappointed of his prey. My 

 fate was the same, but in a somewhat different manner, on no less 

 than three occasions at Moncayo. Just as I was about to box a small 

 moth at rest on a stone, a small housefly-like dipteron pounced on to 

 my quarry and started it off. It was difficult to avoid believing that 

 the fly (could he have spoken) would have said, and did in effect say. 



