XEW BRITISH SPECIES. 81 



occasions. As for the injudiciousness of admitting the spe- 

 cies to our lists as British on the authority of a single speci- 

 men a few words may be said. Firstly, its congener P. ni,^ 

 so recently acquired, is in the same predicament, unless in- 

 deed a Plusia, said to have been taken in the New Forest, 

 and exhibited at a meeting of the Entomological Society, be 

 another, which, I should fancy, it would be far more likely to 

 be than interrogationis. — Of course other species innumerable 

 have at first been unique, and have been looked at suspi- 

 ciously. What, for instance, was thought of the first 

 Odontia dentalis, which is now a sixpenny insect, and dear 

 at the price ? 



AciDALiA PEROCHRARiA, Fischer V. R. 



Acidalia perochr^aria, F, v. R. p. 125, pi. 49, f. a — g; 

 Gn. ix. p. 448. 



When first Acidalia oclirata was turned up at Southend, 

 in Essex, it was mistaken for the ijevochraina of Fischer, 

 and for some time stood in our collections under that name. 

 Monsieur Guenee pointed out, however, that our Southend 

 specimens, though resembling perochraria in size, the conti- 

 nental ochrata being rather larger, were evidently from the 

 structure of the antennae the true ochrata^ the black pecti- 

 nations of perochraria being entirely wanting in our insect. 

 Guenee also indicated an important character, which seems 

 to have escaped the observation of Fischer, that the hind 

 tibiae in perochraria are entirely destitute of spines. 



Some ten years ago I received from my friend Mr. Birchall 

 two examples of this wave as ochrata; these struck me as 

 being quite distinct from the ochrata of our cabinets, and I 



* Mr. W. E. Jeffrey writes that he has a specimen of Plusia ni, cap- 

 tured at Penzance, in May, 1869, hovering over flowers. — H. T. S. 



1871. G 



