NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 47 



with the rest of the civilized world. Foreign setting-boards generally 

 slope a trifle upwards. — J. C. Wakbubg ; Cannes. 



Thalpochares PAULA, Hb., IN Britain. — Mr. C. W. Dale asks (ante, 

 p. 17) whether this species is British, and since I can answer his 

 question in the affirmative, and am the owner of the specimen to 

 which he alludes as having stood as T. paula in Mr. C. A. Briggs's 

 collection, I am writing these lines to dispel his doubts. The moth 

 referred to is unquestionably T. paula : and although Mr. Dale says 

 "it is certainly very different to any foreign specimens of T. paula 

 which I have seen," and " it far more resembles foreign specimens of 

 T. parva," I can assure him that it agrees absolutely with all the 

 British and continental examples of T. paula, and differs essentially 

 from those of T. parva which I have examined. It is the actual 

 specimen captured by Mr. J. Moore, at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, in 

 June, 1872, and alluded to by Mr. Barrett in Ent. Mo. Mag. x. 19 

 (Mr. Dale by a slip gives the reference as " ix. 19 "), and by Dr. H. G. 

 Knaggs in Ent. Ann. 1874, p. 156. Mr. Moore, whose initials 

 Mr. Barrett {loc. cit.) gives as " E. G." in mistake for " J.,'' was per- 

 sonally known to the late Mr. Howard Vaughan and to Mr. C. A. 

 Briggs, and was thoroughly reliable, though I believe that his name 

 was, in later years, used for fraudulent purposes by unscrupulous 

 dealers. Besides this specimen Mr. Barrett (/. c.) mentions two other 

 T. pallia, which I have also seen ; the history of one is unknown, but 

 there is every reason to believe that the other was taken on the south 

 coast by a schoolboy years ago. There may be one or two other 

 genuine British specimens in this country, but I have no particulars 

 of their capture at hand. Mr. Dale evidently thinks that Messrs. 

 Barrett and Meyrick have applied the nAm.es '' parva" and " patda" 

 to different species ; but a careful comparison of their descriptions to 

 which he refers, as well of those of Dr. Knaggs in Ent. Ann. 1874, 

 pp. 157-8, with authentic examples of both insects, shows clearly that 

 all three authors have applied the names quite correctly and to the 

 same species, and that the supposed discrepancies arise from his 

 having failed to notice that whereas Mr. Barrett's distinctions are 

 bised on the character of the fascia, Mr. Meyrick's rest upon the 

 character of the lines. Some of the differences between T. parva and 

 T. paula are well pointed out by Dr. H. G. Knaggs in Ent. Ann. 

 1874, pp. 157-8; and a good enlarged coloured figure of the former, 

 of which I myself captured a specimen in this district on June 8th, 

 1892 (Ent. Mo. Mag. Ser. 2, iii. 308), will be found on the frontis- 

 piece in Ent. Ann. 1859, though Newman (' British Moths,' p. 448) 

 makes the extraordinary comment that from the figure he "should 

 have supposed this insect to be the female of ostrlna!'' I would 

 strongly advise Mr. Dale to examine the very long and beautiful series 

 of T. parva and T. paula in the general collection at the British Museum 

 (Natural History), as they will show him well the peculiar character- 

 istics of each species : the majority of the specimens came out of 

 the collections of the late Professors Zeller and Frey, whose ideas 

 as to the correct application of the names agreed precisely with 

 those of Messrs. Barrett, Knaggs, Meyrick, and myself. In support of 

 his suggestion that T. paula is not British, Mr. Dale, following 



