i}6 A CHAPTER ON ZYGiENA MINOS. 



on the geographical distribution of Zygcena Minos in the 

 West of Ireland. Such were the earliest notices of this 

 insect, all adopting, without hesitation, a name for which no 

 authority had then been given. Latterly Mr. Doubleday 

 places it in his Synonymic List as Z. 3Iinos, W. V. The 

 Vienna Catalogue is certainly high authority when we know 

 what is intended ; but, alas ! in this, as in too many other 

 instances, it is now too late to inquire what its learned 

 authors meant by the name. It will not, I think, be urged 

 by Mr. Allis, with whom the name, as applied to the Irish 

 insect, seems to have originated, that he ever went into the 

 question of its nomenclature \eYj critically. Let me now 

 attempt to bestow on it a name which, even if not accepted, 

 will at any rate challenge inquiry and discussion. 



Zyg^na Nubigena, Musceorum. 

 Alee anticce semi-hyalincBy 7iigrescentes^ plaga magna 

 diffoimi discali rubra; alee posticce rubrce margine 

 tenuiter nigro ; caput, thorax et abdomen nigra, 

 opaca, hirsuta. 

 The amount and disposition of the red colouring on the 

 forewings of the species of Zygcena has always been held of 

 great importance in differentiating species ; thus the terms 

 "five spot" and "six spot" describe characters which in 

 this country were for sixty years considered amply sufficient 

 to distinguish our indigenous species. Although this is no 

 longer the case, we may still consult these markings with 

 advantage. In the two supposed species I am now con- 

 sidering, the red area of the forewings is divided by the 

 wing-rays into three portions or blotches; the first blotch 

 may be called costal ; it originates at the base of the wing, 

 and extends immediately beneath the costal margin ; the 

 second may be called discal, occupying, but not limited by, 



