134 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



anterior wings, but this is common to many species in this and 

 other genera. 



One very pointed note is added by Boisduval to his description 

 of interjectaria : — "II atout-a-fait raison lorsqu'il (M. Delaharpe), 

 dit, qu'elle disparait quand osseata commence." Our experience 

 in England is quite against this, for we get the forms altogether. 

 I have captured the species continuously from June 30th to 

 August 12th, at Deal. I may add that Boisduval and Guenee, in 

 their work mentioned, say of both these supposed species " larva 

 unknown," so that the characters of the imagines were the only 

 means of separation. 



The first note as to A. interjectaria being a British insect is 

 to be found from the pen of Mr. Doubleday (Entom. iii. 361), 

 where he states that " having received specimens of interjectaria 

 from Dr. Staudinger, he was convinced that specimens he had 

 received from Cambridge belonged to this species, and that 

 Guenee had identified them as such." This I quite agree with ; 

 there is not the remotest doubt that some of our specimens 

 represent the interjectaria of Boisduval. We must remember, 

 however, that our lepidopterists considered they were getting 

 two species — osseata and interjectaria. The next note is from 

 Mr. Howard Vaughan (Ent. Mo. Mag. iv. 91), where he announces 

 the capture of the new species interjectaria at Plumstead, and 

 telling us he did not distinguish them at the time from osseata, 

 leaving us to assume that he did afterwards so distinguish them. 

 The next note is from Dr. Knaggs (Ent. Mo. Mag. iv. 113), to 

 the effect that A. interjectaria is tolerabl}'^ abundant at Folke- 

 stone. He then points out differences between the Folkestone 

 specimens, Cambridge interjectaria, and British osseata, and adds, 

 — " No doubt the extremes of these two forms are distinct 

 enough, but it is a confessedly difficult job to draw the line 

 between them." Probably, considering that we have only one 

 species in England, and have to split it up " to draw the line." 

 This was followed by a note from Mr. Doubleday (Ent. Mo. Mag. 

 iv. 1()1), who writes from Epping : — " A. osseata is rare here, and 

 I only know of one spot where it occurs. Specimens taken a few 

 years since, which were evidently very fresh, had the costa 

 decidedly ferruginous, but this colour faded soon after they were 

 dead. The ground colour of the wings was also yellower than in 

 any specimens of interjectaria." These differences also referred, 

 of course, to our one British species. This last extract was 

 written in December, 1867, and was followed in February, 1868, 

 by another note (Entom. iv. 30), where he writes: — "I have 

 recently received from Dr. Staudinger several specimens of the 

 true Acidalia osseata. I had not seen a continental specimen 

 before. The typical examples have a bright red costa, and I 

 have never seen any British specimens like them ; but I possess 



