262 f^P""''' 
the arrangement of genera, using my own discretion as to adopting his names or 
not. With respect to Sesia, I maintain that the true Fabrician types of the genus 
are the opaque-winged species. I add here a sketch of Walker's arrangement, for 
the purpose of enabling others to compare it with Staudinger's and with my own : — 
SPHINGIDJiJ, Sesia (clear-wings), Macroglossa, Proserpinus, CJioerocampa, Pergesa, 
Deilephila, Baphnis, Sphinx-, Anceryx, Aclierontia, Smerinthus. DeilepMla esulce, 
Boisd., which Staudinger makes doubtfully a variety of D. euphorhia, Walker gives 
as a distinct species ; and Laothoe (Smerinthus) trermdoB, doubtfully, as a vai-iety 
of L. pop^ili. The work referred to is the Brit. Mus. List of Lep. Het., Part 8, 
Sphingidce, 1856.— W. P. Kirby, Dublin. 
Lepidoptera in the Isle of Wight. — During last autumn I had a few weeks of 
collecting on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, with my friends Mr. Stanley 
Leigh and Mr. Ernest Geldart. 
Our captures bore strong testimony to the inclemency of the season. Insects 
were certainly scarcer : where Depressarix had been before in scores we now took 
single examples. The resident farmers, too, appeared to have some indistinct 
associations with thatch-beating ; and, though they failed to recognise us, were 
obviously troubled by some jjainful recollections of a previous autumn. 
Among the Maci-os we found little worthy of note. P. Adonis and G. olscurata 
were in extreme abundance. A. citraria was by no means scarce. At lamps, near 
Ventnor, we met with H. popularis, A. australis, A. immutata, and E. pumilata. 
The lighted arbours in the pretty gardens of the " Crab and Lobster" inn proved 
pecuHarly attractive to certain species of Nodiice ; and it was here that I captured 
a most lovely D. cucuhali, the active pursuit of which evidently perplexed and 
startled an old gentleman near whom the visitor settled. 
When I say that Noctua hella was the best insect obtained by about fourteen 
nights of sugaring, I give a fair idea of the utter uselessness of that mode of 
collecting. Its unproductiveness, however, appears to have been general, if I may 
judge by the lack of quality and number of my brother's captures thereby in 
Scotland. 
Of the Bepressarice I took 17 species : liturella, and jpallorella by searching the 
brushwood on the cliffs at night ; arenella, suh-propinqiiella, AlstrcEmeriana, pur- 
purea, alhipunctella, Yeatiana, applana, ciliclla, rotundella, chcerophylli, nervosa, 
hadiella, and Hcracliana by beating thatch ; and unibellana, after exposure to 
fearful storms of wind and rain, by searching the stacks of dried heath on the top 
of St. Boniface Down. These storms, which gathered and fell in the most hurried 
manner, and with the utmost violence, appeared to culminate when we reached the 
most exposed spots. I certainly never got any insects at such expense of personal 
comfort as my specimens of urnhellana. 
Besides the above, we of course took many species not worth recording. It 
may be that the season was a peculiarly bad one, and beyond doubt the roughness 
of the weather, which gave us many very grand sea views, and a most enjoyable 
and bracing air, interfered with our entomological success ; but I cannot help 
thinking the south of the Isle of Wight not remarkable for the number of its local 
species. In this opinion, however, I am quite open to correction. — J. B. Blackburn, 
Grassmeade, Southfields, S.W., January, 1867. 
