BECENT LITERATURE. 141 



of the generic names that students of British Lepidoptera have been 

 in the habit of using. 



In his remarks on the variation of Hydrcecia nictitans (p. 64), our 

 author says : — " Some entomologists profess to be able to separate 

 some of the forms, as a distinct species, under the name of litems, but 

 for this there is not, in my opinion, any ground." In this view we 

 quite concur, and think that the endeavour to specifically separate 

 hicens from H. nictitans is about as unreasonable and as much opposed 

 to fact as was the suggestion that Miana fasciuncula was simply a form 

 of M. strigilis, to which Mr. Barrett also refers (p. 17). We are rather 

 surprised, however, that when he points out the differences between 

 the two last-named species, he does not mention the tufts on the back of 

 the abdomen, which serve to distinguish one species from the other 

 more readily (because more easily examined) than do tbe sexual organs. 



Bondii, Knaggs, is retained in Tapinostola, and morrisii, Meyrick, is 

 given as a synonym. Brevilinea, Fenn, is included with littosa, and 

 phragmitidis in Calamia. Suspecta and upsilon are removed from 

 Orthosia and placed in Dyschorista, whilst ferruginea, rufina, pistacina, 

 lunosa, and litura are associated with lota and macilmta under Orthosia. 

 Prodenia littoralis, Leucania l-album, Mesogona acetosellm, and Caradrina 

 superstes are each mentioned, but neither of them recognised as strictly 

 indigenous to our islands. 



The remarks concerning habits, &c, of the species are often of an 

 exceedingly interesting character, as the following extracts will show. 

 Thus, in discussing Celama haworthii, our author says (p. 4) : — " The 

 male in its favourite moorland haunts is a very lively creature, and 

 flies briskly about among heather and cotton-grass in the afternoon 

 sunshine ; after a short flight, evidently for its own pleasure, it settles 

 on the tip of one of the long leaves of the Eriophorum, and instantly 

 runs down its under side to the ground, where it is quite concealed ; 

 or when it rests on the heather, taking the same course on the smallest 

 alarm. But its favourite time of flight is early dusk, and then it dashes 

 about in multitudes, and at the wildest speed, over the moors. But 

 Mr. Stott has recorded, in the ' British Naturalist,' that the moment a 

 wild flying male passes a tuft in which a female is concealed, its flight 

 becomes slow and steady as it examines the tuft, and that by watching 

 such a tuft hundreds of males may easily be taken. I had on one occa- 

 sion a more singular experience than this : the moths were in full flight 

 and passing continually, when I noticed that several were running over 

 a small mound of earth like an old ant-hill, covered with short grass 

 and a few tufts of Eriophorum. These I secured, and other specimens 

 at once came ; so, kneeling down to box them easily, I found that the 

 fresh arrivals in their fatuous eagerness actually ran over my hands 

 while I was boxing their companions, so many as I cared for. Yet no 

 female was there, and though I dug up and examined the tufts of cotton- 

 grass, pulling them thoroughly to pieces, and also dug up the turf, no pupa 

 nor pupa-skin, nor any indication of the presence of a female, could be 

 found, though without doubt some trace of its recent presence must 

 have been perceptible to the other sex. In fact, the only females which 

 I obtained at all were those which climbed up and hung upon blades 

 of grass and of cotton-grass, or sprigs of heather, earlier in the evening, 



ENTOM. — MAY, 1899. O 



