324 THE EiNTOMOLOGIST. 



from a female talien on the coast, and the latter from larvae 

 collected in Darenth Wood. — F. O. Standish. 



Cirrcedia xerampelina in the Isle of Man. — I have 

 pleasure in recording the occurrence of this beautiful insect 

 in the Isle of Man. 1 have received a fine series captured 

 there, during the present month, by Mr. Warrington, of 

 Douglas. The specimens are all very richly coloured, and 

 some of them present a remarliable variation from ordinary 

 English examples, the golden yellow of the fore wings being 

 replaced by reddish brown ; two narrow lines of yellow only 

 remain bordering the median band, the inner margin of 

 which is not indented near the costa, but runs in a straight 

 and uninterrupted line across the wing : in general aspect 

 the moth is more like Leucania conigera than Xerampelina. 

 Air. Doiibleday informs me that these specimens are identical 

 with the form of Xerampelina which is fotnid in Central 

 France, and that he is not aware that the variety has been 

 previously taken in the British Islands. The appearance of 

 the same variety, and that a very striking one, in localities 

 so widely separated by distance and climatal conditions as 

 Central France and the Isle of Man, is somewhat startling, 

 and shows how little we really know of the causes which 

 govern the production of varieties, and their preservation or 

 extinction in different portions of what we may suppose was 

 once a continuous territory. In tlie South of France, Mr. 

 Doubleday informs me, Xerampelina assumes another form, 

 being very small and dull-coloured. I may remark that the 

 ash, on which the larva feeds, is the most abundant forest 

 tree of the Isle of Man, and flourishes exceedingly in its 

 damp and warm climate. Xerampelina has been found in 

 all the divisions of the United Kingdom, but I believe is 

 nowhere considered a common insect. Probably it is over- 

 looked, appearing in the perfect state at a period of the year 

 when most collectors have retired for the season : the Isle-of- 

 Man specimens were found at rest on the trunks of ash-trees; 

 the n)olh also comes freely to sugar. In Scotland I only know 

 of the capture of one spt^cinien, by Mr. Chapman, at Gare- 

 Loch-Head, in 1859; and in Ireland also of a single example 

 near Drumcar, by the Rev. H. Harpur Crewe, in 186S; both 

 of the ordinary English type. — Edicln BircJiaU ; Ne^clay, 

 Septenber 20, 1869. 



