NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 115 



it. yet, on the day of its awakening, it looked clean and fresb, and was 

 exceedingly active. Thus, for nine months, animation seemed to be 

 totally suspended as far as outward appearances were concerned, this 

 repose differing very materially from a former chapter in its life-history, 

 when, in the chrysalis state, the limbs of the future butterfly were 

 being formed ; and if an object-lesson on fasting were needed, this 

 might excite the most morbid curiosity. — G. B. Corbin ; Ringwood. 



Aplecta nebulosa, var. thompsoni (Arkle). — I regret I am unable 

 to agree with any proposal to include the variety thompsoni with robsoni. 

 The two names mark the two culminating departures from the Dela- 

 mere type, and each is unlike the other. A long experience enables 

 me to say, without hesitation, that no two examples of Delamere 

 nebulosa can be picked out so unlike each other as the varieties robsoni 

 and thompsoni. In the latter, the ground-colour of the upper wings is 

 jet-black, with white margins and fringes ; in the original robsoni, as 

 well as m present-day examples, the ground-colour is black-brown, 

 with grey fringes. My experience shows, furtiier, that photographs are 

 frequently unreliable as entomological illustrations. For example, the 

 jet-black of thompwni and the black-brown of robsoni appear in a 

 photograph as equal tones. Mr. South writes {ante, p. 76): — " Except 

 that fig. 10 (thompsoni) has a white crenulate line on the outer margin 

 of the fore wings, and that the fringes are white instead of brownish 

 grey, it is not otherwise very clearly separable from fig. 8, which has 

 been recognized by Mr. Collins as agreeing with his type of robsoni." 

 Transposed, this means tuat thompsoni is very clearly separable from 

 robsoni by two notable characters — (1), a white crenulate line on the 

 outer margin of the fore wings; and (2), the white fringes. I do not 

 think any attempt will be made to give distinctive names to Delamere 

 nebulosa intermediates. The history of thompsoni will probably act as 

 a deterrent. — J. Arkle ; Chester. 



AcRONYcTA LEPORiNA var. MELANocEPHALA. — I am lionourcd by Mr. 

 A. M. Cochrane's notice (' Entomological Record,' April loth, 1906) 

 of my article upon the above insect, which appeared in the ' Entomo- 

 logist ' (vol. xxxviii. 289, and vol. xxxix. 19). I gather from this 

 criticism that the writer of it wishes to set aside the prior claim 

 of Treitschke to the name bradyporina for our grey form of leporina, 

 and to transfer the name bradyporina to the new variety, thus deleting 

 the varietal name melanocephala. He further suggests the substitution 

 of a new name, grisea, for the present usage of bradyp'irina, thus, 

 in a breath, setting aside the authority of Treitschke, Hilbner, and 

 Staudinger on the Continent, and Stephens and Tutt in this country. 

 I wonder what the strict systematists will say to such an attack upon 

 the law of priority. As to the variety described in my notes to the 

 'Entomologist,' if my critic can show that the form described by the 

 above-named authorities as bradyporina had a black thorax, and that, 

 m the coloration of the fore wings and body, black predominated, or 

 that it was materially different from the form so long known as brady- 

 porina, or, in other words, if he can show that when grey or dirty-grey 

 was written black was intended, there may be a case for the suppres- 

 sion of the varietal name melanocephala. Whatever future research 



