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ACOSMETIA {MIAN A) ARCUOSA, Hw., var. 

 MORRIS II, Morris. 



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



Eefereing to my reproduction of the original description of 

 mornsii in your October number {ante, p. 256), Mr. Louis B. 

 Prout {ante, p. 296) calls attention to the fact that Mr. Meyrick 

 simply accepted the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Tutt, which is 

 satisfactory, though only in so far as it shows the correctness of 

 my supposition that the writer in the ' Handbook ' had never 

 seen either morrisii or the original description of it. I can 

 assure Mr. Prout that I have not overlooked either Mr. Tutt's 

 " discussion " on morrisii referred to, or the article in which 

 he candidly explained the peculiar method of reasoning by 

 which he arrived at his conclusions ; and as the latter seems to 

 me to be particularly interesting and instructive, I should like, 

 with the editor's permission, to place it before the readers of the 

 'Entomologist.' The passage (' Ent. Record,' iv. pp. 72, 73) 

 runs as follows : — 



" Fig. 1 represents Acosmetia morrisii, Dale, a species we have 

 known for some time as bondii, Knaggs. It has always appeared 

 wonderful to me that a species turned up at Folkestone as late 

 as 1861 should then have required a new name ; this remarkable 

 circumstance I have repeatedly communicated to entomological 

 friends. I was set on the move about this species first by a note 

 which Mr. Dale wrote to the ' Ent. Eecord,' vol. i. p. 34, in which 

 he refers morrisii to arcuosa as a pale var. I wanted to know 

 more about morrisii for my book on the British Noctuae ; but for 

 some time I could not find anything. However, one day, looking 

 through the last plates of Noctu?e in Humphrey and Westwood's 

 ' British Moths,' I came across a figure, at the sight of which I 

 ejaculated, ' extrema, Hb. — bondii, Knaggs.' I turned to the 

 letterpress, and the name was morrisii. I immediately went to 

 my cabinet, satisfied myself as to its identity with bondii at once, 

 both from the figure and letterpress ithe hind wings of the figure 

 are unmistakeable), and then set to work to learn more. The 

 specimen from which the figure was made was captured by Mr. 

 Morris himself at Charmouth, in the same line of coast, and 

 about ten miles from the well-known locality for bondii at Lyme 

 Regis, discovered by Mr. Wormald ; and afterwards captured 

 there in plenty by Messrs. Goss and Tugwell. The greatest 

 puzzle about the whole affair, is to think that a species described 

 by Mr. Dale in the ' Naturalist,' vol. ii. p. 88, and errata, figured 

 by Humphrey and Westwood in 1843 or 1844 under Dale's name, 

 should be re-described in 1861 (eighteen years at the most), and 

 accepted by entomologists without question. Perhaps they lived 

 more slowly in those days; at any rate, they appear to have 



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