288 THE entomologist's record. 



year, while the former form* seems to have multiplied and spread in the same 

 proportion. Their flight, too, is essentially different. While the former variety* 

 flies easily and more slowly, the other one shoots away with more powerful flight, 

 almost like paludicola and nexa. I have bred Herrich-Schaffer's formf for several 

 years, and also communicated special facts about their habits, which correspond in 

 their essential parts with Treitschke's statement, and in my addendum to " Ueber- 

 sicht Mecklenb. Lepidop." (Archives of the Society of Friends of Natural Hixtory 

 in Mecklenburg, v., pp. 137 et seq.). On the other hand I have, so far, obtained 

 Hiibner's variety* almost exclusively by catching, and only lately observed it more 

 closely, and have only bred it singly from the pupa. As regards its larva, which I 

 am certain I have often seen, although I am not certain of having bred the moth 

 from it, I beg to point out that I scarcely noticed any difference between the two in 

 their way of living, and in their general build, except that they appeared consider- 

 ably earlier, and were always met with singly in other localities. Also, after very 

 closely examining two pupje found here a few years ago, I did not notice that they 

 differed from the more robust variety except that they appeared somewhat thinner 

 and more greenish-yellow, and were also lying in the reed-stem somewhat higher 

 from the ground (some widths of the hand above the water) than seems to be the 

 rule with the others. From one of these pupee a fine $ of the first variety* 

 emerged very late in the season**, and, at the same time a cT of the other speoiesf 

 appeared. I availed myself of this fortuitous event, which I had long desired, to 

 try whether the two varieties would copulate, which I always noticed took place in 

 the case of the more robust variety f, as soon as both sexes were together in the 

 receptacle, and mostly immediately after development. Being placed together, 

 they did not appear to be inclined that way, although they were flying together for 

 two evenings. Now what especially confirmed my belief that the two were different 

 species, was when, on the third evening, a ? of the second varietyf came out, 

 with which the c? copulated at once. From all this, I think I am entitled to the 

 assumption that the two varieties referred to, previously united as neurica, are two 

 different species, even if, on closer examination, their larvee and pupje should not 

 visibly show much difference. The name neurica must remain with the older 

 Hiibnerian variety, and the other, Herrich-Schaffer's variety, must, therefore, have 

 a new name. As this one occurs deeper in the reed-bed, more in the thicket of it, I 

 call it arundineta. 



It it unfortunate that, neither Schmidt nor Herrich-Schaffer, to 

 whom Schmidt says that he submitted specimens, observed 

 that Hiibner's fig. 381, was wanting in the characters — " white 

 collar," "white dots along centre of wing," and "unspotted 

 underside" which were insisted on by Schmidt (and so clearly desig- 

 nated in edehteni, see pi. xxi., figs. 1-5). and that, therefore, the really 

 new species was not neurica, Hb., but that both neurica, Hb., and 

 neurica, H.-Sch., had got the collar coloured uniformly with the thorax, 

 and the dark lower part of reniform pale-ringed (see pi. xxi., figs. 6-9), 

 and that both Avere the same species which Schmidt renamed 

 arundineta. 



It has been suggested that this description of Schmidt's is not the 

 earliest referable to our newly-discovered (in Britain) and recently- 

 named edehteni, and that a remark in that part of Treitschke's descrip- 

 tion of neurica, Hb., in which he refers to dissoluta {Die Schmett. von 

 Europa, v., pt. 2, p. 319) involves an earlier description. Treitschke 

 heads his species : 



Neurica. 



Non. alis anticis flavo vel fusco ferrugineis, vena maculaque medio albicantibus, 

 serie punctorum nigrorum ad marginem externum. 



Hiibner, " Noct.," tab. 82, fig. 381 (i). 



Hiibner, " Noct.," tab. 144, figs. 659-660 ( i ), fig. 661 (? ) N. neurica. 



* i.e., edehteni, Tutt. f i.e., neurica, Hb. 



** This fact suggests, in comparison with the earlier statement that edehteni 

 occurs some three or four weeks earlier than neurica, that there is some over- 

 lapping as one might suppose. 



