THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XVIIL] MAY, 1885. [No. 264. 



THE GENUS SCOP ABU. 

 By Charles A. Beiggs. 



The near approach of another season urges me to ask the 

 assistance of lepidopterists towards extricating this genus from 

 the confusion into which it has been allowed to fall. Highly 

 interesting as the genus is, easy as the species are both to breed 

 and to take in abundance in their particular localities, yet it 

 seems to have always been looked upon as a genus to be avoided, 

 and one difficult to master, as was the genus Eujnthecia, before 

 the labours of Harpur Crewe, of Gregson, Porritt, and others 

 cleared away the difficulties by which that genus was surrounded. 



This avoidance probably arose from three causes : — The first 

 was a wide-spread error, traceable to a high authority, that 

 Scoparice would not bear pill-boxing, and should be killed, and 

 even set, on the field, though how this was to be carried out in 

 practice did not appear. This calumny, once spread, has clung 

 to the group, although, as a matter of fact, the specimens, if kept 

 fairly cool and quiet in a decent sized glass-topped box, are as 

 well behaved as one could wish. The second cause is that 

 everyone who has touched the group has tried to evince his 

 earnestness and zeal by adding to the already over-laden list; 

 and not only that, but if a new species was separated from an 

 existing one, it was described independently, without clearly 

 pointing out the characteristics that distinguished it. The third 

 cause was that, as a rule, a new, or so-called new, species got 

 placed in a difi"erent part of the genus from its nearest ally, 

 thereby greatly increasing the difficulties attending the group. 

 Thus in Mr. South's list S. ingratella, which is a mere variety 



ENTOM. — MAY, 1885. S 



