1885] 101 



them all — and it seems probable that the differences are all rather in 

 the nature of variations than of specific distinctions. Yet malinellus 

 is described as a distinct species by Zeller, Freyer, Herrich-Schaffer, 

 Erej, and Heinemann. 



Types received some years ago from the late Professor Zeller are 

 not larger than ordinary padellus from hawthorn, but are all of a pure 

 silvery-white, without any grey clouding [and this is always the 

 character of any continental malinellus I have seen. — II. T. S.]. 

 Otherwise, they agree exactly with our apple-feeding form. 



68, Camberwell Grove, S.E. : 



September Uth, 1885. 



EEPLY TO MR. BUTLER'S PAPER "ON THE DISTINCTNESS OF 

 AULOCERA SCYLLA FROM A. BRARMINUSr 



BY LIONEL DE NICEVILLE, F.E.S. 



In vol. xxi, p. 245, of this Magazine, appears a paper bearing the 

 above heading, in which Mr. Butler comments on the opinion expressed 

 by Major Marshall and myself in "The Butterflies of India," to the 

 effect that Aulocera Sci/lla, Butler, is not specifically separable from 

 A. weran^a, Lang, = A. hraJiminus, Blanchard. 



After quoting our remarks, Mr. Butler writes : — " It must be 

 borne in mind that when writing the above, neither Major Marshall 

 nor Mr. De Niceville had examined the type of A. Scylla ; when the 

 latter gentleman saw it a few months ago, he jumped to another hasty 

 conclusion and decided that it was nothing but an under-fed specimen 

 of ^. Werang {sic).'' But this second conclusion, even if hasty, is 

 identical with the first ; my note made in writing at the time was that 

 " A. Scylla is nothing whatever but A. hrahninus,'" or, in other words, 

 a subsequent examination of the type confirmed the conclusion I had 

 formed from the description. And I can find nothing whatever in 

 Mr. Butler's recent paper to disprove it ; he merely attempts to dis- 

 credit my judgment by unsupported assertions about my jumping to 

 hasty conclusions. 



I should not have noticed this paper, however, solely on account 

 of the extremely objectionable tone of it, but the lamentable ignorance 

 displayed in the latter part of it, and the extraordinary assertion 

 that because A, Scylla has been found in the Kutti Tangti Valley, 

 11—12,000 feet, " It is, therefore, clear that the locality ' Silhet ' was, 

 at any rate, if not quite correct (which remains to be proved), by no 

 means so far out as Messrs. Marshall and De Niceville imagined," 

 ought not to remain on record uncorrected. 



