VARIATION OF CERTAIN AGROTID.E. 199 



the Lancashire and Cheshire coasts, the Welsh coasts and other 

 localities, with splendidly developed pale costse and all the 

 characteristic longitudinal markings of toitici, and without or 

 almost without any transverse markings. This creates another 

 difficulty, and only the most practised eye can distinguish some 

 of these and correctly refer them to their right group. I will not 

 go so far as to say that in some instances they cannot be named, 

 but, with the exception of some half-dozen of our oldest 

 entomologists who have given this matter special attention, I 

 doubt whether they would be distinguished. But although there 

 is so much to increase the difficulty of determination, jet I do 

 not for one moment believe that cursoria and trit'ici are speci- 

 fically identical in the same way as are tritici and aquilina. My 

 Kent specimens are purely and simply c«?'soria-like varieties of 

 tritici, and I do not believe that cursoria occurs in that part of 

 the Kent coast from which so many cabinets have been supplied. 

 Many lepidopterists have said to me, " Oh, I never have any 

 trouble to distinguish cursoria," or statements to that effect. I 

 generally answer, " I suppose not " ; but my feelings of admi- 

 ration for the gentlemen may be better imagined than described. 

 A few years ago I should have wondered whether anything was 

 wrong with any individual who had suggested that I could not 

 distinguish cursoria. I have learned better since. A series in a 

 cabinet is a grand study ; an illimitable series in a state of nature, 

 however, is a vastly grander one. It is really marvellous to me 

 how, in the one species tritici, all the characters of all the allied 

 species are developed in special forms, and how these lead up to 

 their respective extreme forms of development, which have at 

 last become distinct, or, as we call them, species. 



It has been pointed out to me that cursoria is a differently 

 shaped insect to tritici. My answer is that in this group shape is 

 nothing. I have some remarkable forms of tritici with the wings 

 almost as broad as they are long, others with wings long and 

 exceedingly slender. Normal well-developed tritici differ but 

 little in shape from well-developed normal cursoria; but one 

 factor in favour of considering cursoria distinct, is the fact that at 

 Sligo the wings are always well developed and ample, while it is 

 unusual to find a specimen of the various varieties of tritici which 

 is not exceedingly small and undersized. It may be that the 

 cursoria are more suited to their environment, but there is 



