1805.1 203 



Phigalia PiLOSAUiA. — Tlic first intimation that this species was 

 following the examjjle of AmpJiidasijs hetuhirin was sup[)lied in 1891 in 

 this Magazine by the Eev. Canon Fowler, regarding a specimen found 

 at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire: — " rich velvety black all over, except 

 the vtiins of the upper-wings, which were brown." In 1892 another 

 was found in Derbyshire. In 1893 Mr. South recorded a black 

 apterous female at Barnsley, and in the following year the rearing of 

 this variety in both sexes ; also that a black example had been found 

 at AVharncliffe, Sheffield, ten years before. In 1892 a deep black male 

 was secured near Eotherham, Yorkshire, by Mr. W. Brookes, and 

 f()lU)wing up this clue, he has obtained similar specimens in each fol- 

 lowing year ; in 1894 as many as six, besides intermediates. Other 

 examples have been obtained from time to time : one is in the collection 

 of the late Mr. Bond ; and Mr. Gregson says that he took one, now 

 in Mr. Sydney Webb's collection, twenty-five years ago ; others are in 

 Dr. Mason's collection, and two of a unicolorous dark grey, rather 

 than black, have been taken at Hartlepool, Durham. In all these, 

 whether black or grey, the usual markings have become absorbed, but 

 the nervures are distinctly darker than the remainder of the wing. 

 The hind-wings in this species appear to be but little affected. There 

 can be no doubt that this has become a permanent and recurrent 

 variety in Yorkshire and some of the adjoining counties. 



BoARMiA REPANDATA. — Numerous as are the permanent varieties 

 of this fine species, and strikingly handsome as are some of them, no 

 tendency in the direction of unicolorous blackness seems to have been 

 observed in it by the earlier writers. Although divided into supposed 

 species — repandafa, destrigarla, convei'saria, muraria — all well marked 

 varieties ; no figure or description refers to any form devoid of the 

 ordinary makings of the species. In 1887, however, Mr. G. T. Porritt 

 found a handsome blackish form, some of the individuals being smooth 

 glossy black, not uncommonly in a fir wood in the Huddersfield dis- 

 trict. Eggs laid by some of these produced in the following year 

 specimens which he described as " almost absolutely inky-black, blacker 

 indeed than the well known form of Amphidasys betularia.'' Three or 

 four years later, the same black form was reared in some numbers 

 from larvre found near Sheffield by Mr. A. E. Hall, and I saw a great 

 many magnificent specimens in his boxes. Other collectors have since 

 reared it from larvae found in the same neighbourhood, and although 

 at present apparently confined to South Yorkshire, this handsome 

 variety is certainly increasing in numbers. In it the fore- and hind- 



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