NEW BRITISH SPECIES IN 1855. 27 



This has been a grand year for Lepidopterists : the hard 

 winter and backward spring retarding the larvae from leav- 

 ing their winter quarters till the season was sufficiently ad- 

 vanced to enable vegetation, when it did begin to grow, to 

 continue without check, has rendered this, I believe, without 

 exception the best year for Lepidoptera in the memory 

 of the oldest Entomologist. 1846 was a grand year with 

 Antiopa and Convolvuli, but there was not that general 

 profusion of such multitudes of species that has been observed 

 in the year 1855. 



Trochilium scoli^eforme, Borkhausen. A large spe- 

 cies, allied to Spkegiforme and Allantiforme, resembles the 

 former in having (at least in one sex) a portion of the an- 

 tennae, towards the tip, whitish. From Spkegiforme it may 

 be instantaneously distinguished by the anal tuft of the ab- 

 domen being brigltt saffron (reddish-orange), whereas in 

 Spkegiforme it is entirely black. Allantiforme has the 

 central portion of the anal tuft yellow, only the sides of it 

 black. 



Expands 1 inch 3 lines. Anterior wings with the costa 

 and hind margin blueish-black ; the central fascia broad, 

 blueish-black, with a wedge-shaped projection towards the 

 base ; thorax black, with two lateral oblique yellow lines ; 

 abdomen blueish-black, with two yellow rings, anal tuft 

 saffron. 



This conspicuous addition to our Fauna (which we hope 

 to figure on the plate of our next year's Annual) was taken 

 by Mr. Ashworth, in Wales, and its capture is recorded in 

 the Zoologist, p. 4814, under the name of Trochilium Spke- 

 giforme. 



The larva has been found by Dr. Staudinger feeding within 

 the wood of the birch. 



c2 



