256 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



aberration of E. tithonus is so far well known on the Continent 

 as to have received a distinct varietal name, but I cannot call to 

 mind the reference at the present moment. 



[The only named variety of Epinepliele tithonus of which I 

 have seen any description is v. mincki, Seebold (Berl. Ent. Zeit. 

 xxxvi. 467 (1892), but this hardly agrees with Mr. Spindler's 

 aberration. — E. S.] 



ACOSMETIA MORPJSII, Mokris. 

 By H. Guard Knaggs, M.D., F.L.S. 



May I be allowed to correct some inaccuracies which occur 

 in Mr. Meyrick's 'Handbook of British Lepidoptera,' p. 121, 

 respecting an insect which is there referred to as Caradrina 

 morrisii, Dale ? 



In the first place the late Mr. Dale never described the insect 

 in question ; he may have ticketed it morrisii, but manuscript 

 names are not now recognized. It was the late Eev. F. 0. Morris 

 himself who described his own namesake ; therefore the name, 

 if resuscitated, should be morrisii, Morris. 



In Mr. Meyrick's ' Handbook' it seems to be taken for granted 

 that morrisii, Morris, and bondii, Knaggs, are identical ; not 

 only that, but morrisii has been redescribed, and one of its 

 features, the " slightly brown costa," which bondii does not 

 possess, has been omitted, whilst the dotted second line of bondii, 

 which is absent in morrisii, has been added ; so that the de- 

 scription of morrisii must have been taken from bondii, and it 

 is pretty evident that the writer of it has never seen either 

 morrisii or the original description of it. 



The sanction of the name of so high an authority as Mr. 

 Meyrick to the statement that morrisii and bondii pertain to one 

 and the same species is, in my opinion, calculated to stifle in- 

 dependent investigation, and to deter the entomological public 

 from referring to the original description ; otherwise I should 

 not have taken the trouble to notice it. As it is now just sixty 

 years since the original description saw the light of publicity, 

 there seems danger of its becoming lost in the mists of antiquity ; 

 and as no entomologist living or dead, with the sole exception of 

 Humphreys and Westwood, has alluded to it until quite recently, 

 1 trust that you will permit me to lay it before your readers, in 

 order that they may judge the case for themselves. It is ex- 

 tracted from ' The Naturahst,' vol. ii. p. 88, 1837 : — 



"Notice of the Discovery of a New Insect, Acosmetia morrisii. 

 Dale MSS. — I have great pleasure in forwarding for your pages a de- 

 scription of a species of Acusmetia, which I believe to be entirely new 

 to entomologists. My kind friend Mr. Dale has been so good as to 



