152 LEPIDOPTERA. 



of his friends nor wlio recognizes the rarity of his capture 

 on the spur of the moment. I'll just tell the reader, with 

 Mr. Stainton's permission — in confidence, mind, " it must not 

 go any further" — that about fifteen years ago I took a new 

 species which was looked on at the time as "a variety" of 



' , and was accordingly placed in the cabinet of a 



friend who doted on varieties. It remained there as an 

 aberrant form, until of late years it has turned out to be a 

 novelty. But — whist — I have not till the present moment 

 breathed a word concerning my ill fortune to a soul, so I 

 trust that the reader will preserve the secret. I wipe my 

 eye and proceed. 



Amongst the more noticeable papers connected with the 

 study of Lepidoptera are Mr. C. G. Barrett's continuation 

 of his able Notes on the Tortricina, Mr. Birchall's Supple- 

 ment to his Lepidoptera of Ireland, Messrs. Hell ins' and 

 Buckler's Elucidation of the earlier Stages of the Lithosid(E, 

 Mr. Dale's Enumeration of the Species (24 in all) discovered 

 by his late respected father ; but, as Alice would say, the 

 "curiousest" paper of all is devoted to the subject of con- 

 trolling the sexes by a process of starvation (the starvelings 

 being males, and the healthy well-fed examples females). 

 When it is taken into consideration that the writer is a lady, 

 the whole affair looks very like a satire on the male sex 

 generally. 



A black variety of Dianth(Ecia co7ispersa has been bred 

 in Morayshire, Lithosia griseola and stramineola have been 

 proved to be one and the same species, Gonepteryx Rhamni 

 has coquetted with a ball of rose-coloured paper, and Macro- 

 glossa stellatarum has taken to flying by moonlight. 



Vanessa Antiopa in 1873. 

 The unusual abundance of this handsome species last year 



