804 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



lived with their eyes partly shut. I am not particularly surprised 

 that Dr. Knaggs re-described the species. The few years that he 

 was devoted to the study of Lepidoptera brought many new 

 things to light, which have since sunk into darkness ; but I am 

 astonished that men of comparatively good scientific knowledge, 

 with Humphrey and Westwood always in their hands as their 

 every-day reference book, did not detect the blunder committed 

 by a (may I say?) then comparative beginner. Perhaps it was 

 then as it is now. If work be not done in the groove laid down 

 by our extra-scientific friends, it is something to be ignored and 

 jumped upon. This it appears to have been taken for granted, 

 was bound to be correct, and did not require enquiring into. 

 Fancy the lepidopterists of to-day letting some comparative 

 beginner re-describe a species only eighteen years old ; and yet 

 this is what the entomologists of 1861 did. Bondii, Knaggs, 

 will, therefore, have in future to be labelled morrisii, Dale." 



Mr. Prout evidently doubts the adequacy of Mr. Morris's 

 description to sink bondii as a synonym of morrisii ; and 

 certainly bondii is not of a pale straw colour assimilating to the 

 colour of sun-dried grass (indeed the contrast between the almost 

 chalky white moths settled upon the dark green foliage of their 

 food-plant on a summer's evening is about as striking as can well 

 be imagined) ; neither does it possess faint narrow brown lines 

 diverging towards the margin ; nor is it attached to a grass 

 which becomes desiccated in summer ; nor has it ever, as far as 

 I can learn, been known to fly by day. And, further, a liassic 

 soil, such as occurs at Charmouth, seems to me to be a very 

 unlikely one for bondii to inhabit. On the other hand, the 

 description is fully adequate to identify arcuosa, male, especially 

 if worn, when the dotted elbowed line is apt to become indistinct 

 or obsolete, the diverging lines to show up more conspicuously, 

 and the hind wings to fade, as appears to have been the case in 

 the specimens named morrisii. 



Mr. C. W. Dale (son of the late respected Mr. J. C. Dale, and 

 inheritor, I believe, of his father's collection), who has, in all 

 probability, seen the insect, if it was considered worth preserving, 

 and heard from his father's lips its history from its "discovery" 

 to its suppression, ought surely to be better qualified to give an 

 authoritative opinion on morrisii than any other entomologist 

 who has never enjoyed these advantages. Mr. Dale has stated 

 decidedly (' Ent. Eecord,' vol. i. p. 34) that morrisii is a pale 

 variety of arcuosa ; and every line, every word of Mr. Morris's 

 description confirms his decision. The alar expanse, build, 

 colour, and markings, — the narrow brown lines diverging 

 towards the margin (not to mention the slightly brown costa, 

 noted by Humphrey and Westwood) ; — all agree with arcuosa. 

 The starting up and flying by day, when alarmed, is a well- 

 known habit of arcuosa ; and the long grass, which, as its seed 



