INVESTIGATIONS ON SCIAPHILA WAHLBOMIANA, ETC. 53 



Sc. minuscula?ia, as I will point out presently, can be easily 

 and with certainty distinguished from other Sciap/iila-lavvx, 

 it appears to me that in good truth the specific distinctness 

 of Minusculana is well founded. 



All the remaining species of Sciaphila which are now 

 under consideration, namely, those in Herrich-Schiiifer's 

 Section VI., 2 (vol. iv. p. 199), have the first mentioned 

 short, thick ovipositor, with the yellowish tuft of hairs. 

 fVahlbomiana, communana, alticolana, virgaureana, and 

 derivana {paraliana), seem all to be only different forms of 

 a single species, which shows an extraordinary tendency to 

 vary even in the larva state, as will be pointed out further 

 on. 



Wahlbomiana is widely spread and everywhere abundant, 

 but this does not appear to be so much the case with 

 Sc. communana and virgaureana. Of the former I have 

 specimens from Ratisbon, and through Herr Mann also from 

 Vienna, Carinthia and Dalmatia. I have it also from Mug- 

 gendorf and Marktsteft. Of Virgaureana I have specimens 

 from Ratisbon, Vienna, Munich, Coburg, and Marktsteft. 

 Alticolana, a variety which is distinguished by its larger 

 size and more lively colouring, occurs principally in moun- 

 tainous districts — in the Alps, the Engadine, the Bregenzer 

 Wald, and at Bergiin in the Grisons (Zeller) ; yet many 

 specimens from the neighbourhood of Ratisbon, and from 

 the Upper Palatinate, are hardly distinguishable from these 

 Alpine forms. 



Derivana (which, according to Heinemann is identical 

 with paraliana), is, as Heinemann (vol. ii. p. 61) quite 

 correctly observes, distinguished by the second fascia of the 

 anterior wings being mixed with brownish-yellow in the 

 middle, a character which I have not so far observed in any 

 other variety. Besides this, the middle flap of the male 



