A CHAPTER ON ZYG^XA MINOS. 65 



to Mr. Birchall, were at the same time submitted to a critical 

 examiPiation, with tl]e result that one of them was certainiy 

 identical both with Herrich-SchiifFer's Z. Minos and with 

 Mr. Birchall's new Irish insect ; the second specimen, how- 

 ever, seemed to differ, being a much more opaque insect, 

 somewhat larger, irroi-ated with testaceous scales, and having 

 a whitish or greyish tuft on each side of the mesothorax at 

 the base of the forewings, extending on to the wing itself. 

 These differences at first induced both Mr. Birchall and 

 myself to think that the two specimens iji question were 

 referrible to different species, the one probably being the true 

 Z. Minos, the other the true Z. Achillea; but even this 

 conclusion appears doubtful, since we found the testaceous 

 scales often present in the Irish specimens, and in a iew 

 instances the grey tuft at the base of the forewings is also 

 very distinctly present. Under these circumstances, it seems 

 best to eliminate the name of Z. /Irhillece from the discussion, 

 and to confine our attention to the two species, or supposed 

 species, which I endeavoured to differentiate at p. 7565. 

 Let us call the most familiar black-bodied insect Zi/f/cena 

 Nvbigena, thus adopting a cabinet name, used both in France 

 and Germany, and one which M. Guenee proposes to adopt, 

 should he ever describe this tribe of insects. And let us 

 inquire how it came to be called Z. Minos in England, and 

 in England only. The first notice of the insect is from my 

 own pen, and runs thus: — "I am informed by my friend 

 Mr. Thomas H. Allis that about a dozen specimens of 

 Zygcena Minos were taken last summer on the west coast of 

 Ireland by Henry Milner, Esq., of Nunappleton, near York." 

 ZooL 4180, dated January, 1854. Mr. Stevens (Zool. 4272) 

 is reported to have exhibited at the Entomological Society's 

 Meeting specimens of the new British Zygcena Minos. At 

 Zool. 4438 is a most interesting!: paper by Mr. A. G. More 

 1862. ^ F 



