XI 



654 species, and more than 300 named varietal and aberrational 

 forms, besides others that have not received that distinction. 



The Continental species in families of which we have British 

 representatives, such as Cucullia, Pliisia, and Catocala, are 

 especially worthy of attention. 



Of melanic and melanochroic forms the collection contains a 

 large number. These are all noted and described in the following 

 pages. Many of these forms, and of the corresponding light forms, 

 were referred to in Mr. Dobree's paper 'On Melanism,' in 'The 

 Entomologist ' for February 1887. 



In addition to these numerous examples of the imaginal stage 

 of the insect, the collection contains exactly 720 examples of 

 preserved larvae. In the preservation of larvae Mr. Dobree was 

 a pioneer, and by his invariable kindness and courtesy helped many 

 other students to a knowledge of the somewhat difficult processes 

 involved. Nothing short of a Hfe-like appearance of the larvae 

 when ' stuffed ' would satisfy him, and to obtain this he resorted 

 to a special method of stuffing each empty skin, when ' blown,' 

 with tiny pieces of Berhn wool, the colour of the wool used varying 

 with the colour of the skin of the larva during its hfe. For this 

 purpose he made it a practice to have by him some fifty different 

 shades of wool. To the student of the purely British Lepidoptera 

 the chief interest probably hes in these larvae, and one is safe in 

 affirming that no provincial museum contains such a beautiful 

 series of preserved larvae as is here to be seen. 



That many of our British Lepidoptera exhibit most wonderful 

 schemes of colouring is well known to everyone who is interested 

 in nature study, but how beautiful the larvae of the Lepidoptera 

 may be is not so generally known. The lover of the beautiful 

 in nature is recommended to see the larvae of Agroiis agathina 

 and fraecox in Drawer 16 ; Hadena finiperda in Drawer 21 ; 

 Polia flavicincta in Drawer 26 ; Dichonia aprilina in Drawer 27 ; 

 Apiecia occulta in Drawer 28 ; and, especially, those of the Cucul- 

 lidae in Drawers 33 and 34. Specially beautiful forms of the perfect 

 insect are those of the various species of Plusia in Drawers 38 and 

 39, Cucullia in Drawers 33 and 34, and Catocala in Drawers 41 

 and 42, 



The knowledge thus gained by Mr. Dobree of the Continental 

 forms of our British Noctuae gave rise to frequent contributions of 

 small articles and notes to the pages of the entomological maga- 

 zines,* but his most important contribution to entomological 

 science was his paper ' On Melanism,' that appeared in ' The 

 Entomologist ' for February 1887. The causes of the phenomenon 

 of Melanism had then for some years been a matter of discussion. 

 and, in fact, ' so much had been written on the subject, that it 



* A full list of these will be found in Appendix II., p. 147. 



