1910.] 113 



Stgr. and Ebl., Cat. ii. p. HI, No. 1000 (1001), Rebel sunk languentana 

 as a variety of Stegannptijclia ericetana, briefly defining it as " major, 

 iiiagis grisescens,'' bnt adding " vix nom. conserve From a study of 

 the original description of languentana, I conclude that Frey's 

 exponents of ericetana are referable to this variety, and although, with 

 an aJav. exp. of clrc. 10 mm. in the males, and circ. 15 mm. in the 

 females, they would, on an average, be hardly larger than the Aviemore 

 representatives of the species, their wing-expanse is decidedly greater 

 than that of the individuals from which Herrich-Schiiffer's description 

 was made, if we are right in assuming that his " 8-8 L." is a mistake for 

 " 6-8 L." Staudinger {Inc. cit.) describes languentana from fcmr males 

 (alar. e>i;p.,\S-'2Q mm.), and one female (alar, exp., 16 mm.), taken by 

 him with four other males, not identical with those so described,* at 

 Trafoi, in the latter half of July. In the course of his detailed 

 information, he states that languentana is, on an average, a little larger 

 and narrower- winged than ericetana, but that the patterns of the fore- 

 wings are almost exactly similar, though the former has a dark ashy- 

 grey gromid-colour : he adds that it is rather duller, more monotonously 

 grey, than G-erman examples of the latter, but that two specimens from 

 Lapland' also before him are likewise monotonously grey. Snellen 

 can only have been acquainted with an unusually small form of erice- 

 tana, and an unusually large one of fractifasciana, seeing that, in 

 Vliiid. V. Ned., Microlep. (1882), he enters the wing-expanse of the 

 former (p. 347) as only 14-15 mm., but that of the latter (p. 345) as 

 14-16 mm. for the males, and 12-13 mm. for the females. Rebel 

 (loc. cit.) gives ericetana as occvirring in the European Alps, North 

 G-ermany, Holland, Northern Europe, Asia Minor, and perhaps 

 Labrador, but enters the Tyrolian Alj^s as the only known locality 

 for var. languentana. 



Whereas von Heinemann, in Sclimet. Deutsch. u. d. Schweiz, II, 

 i (i), p. 216 (1863), states that the imago of ericetana (Zell. MS.), 

 H.-S., is found at the end of May and in June, round birches, Frey 

 [Lep. Schweiz, 326 (1880)] gives it as occurring from the end of June 

 into August, and in Vlind. v. Ned., Microlep., p. 348 (1882), Snellen 

 writes of it; — "Flies from the end of June until August. Larva 

 unknown. Flies about dwarf sallow (Salix repens), sea-buclv:thorn 

 (Hijjpophai- rhamnoides), heath and Vaccinium.'" Sorhagen [Klein- 

 schmet. d. M. Brand., 325 (1886)], however, tells tis that the moth is 

 out in May (end) and June, and occurs " round aspens and birches," 



' staudinger {loc. cit.) refers to hi.s .supposed new species, languentana, one individual ((J) 

 that he captured in the Upper Engadine, as well as the nine that were secured at Trafoi. — E. R. B. 



