CONTRIBUTIONS TO HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PTEROPHORI. 281 



description of the pupa of dichrodactylus. On the 21st of July 

 the moth made its appearance, and as it diifers from all my 

 captured examples I give a short description: — Expanse, 

 12 lines. So much suffused with an umber tint as to appear 

 almost entirely of this colour ; but the whitish ground colour 

 shows itself along the inner margin, and again in a narrow 

 ill-defined stripe from the costa to the digital juncture. The 

 scales at digital juncture are hardly darker. A.11 three feathers 

 of the hind wings, including the fringes, are lustrous umber- 

 brown, and there is no trace of darker scales along the inner 

 margin of third feather. The tibise of hind legs are whitish to 

 their middle, then brownish to the tarsi. The tarsi are whitish, 

 and have three narrow brownish rings. 



The apparently half-grown larvse differed from the one 

 specially examined in the coloration of the dorsal and subdorsal 

 stripes. These strii3es were of a colour rather difficult to express 

 in words, but somewhat approached purple-brown. Neither of 

 these larvse, however, were destined to attain the perfect state. 

 One of them eventually proved to be ichneumoned ; and the 

 other, from some obscure cause, failed to thrive, and died a few 

 days after I received it. 



Is Rossler's bertranii specifically distinct from the dichrodac- 

 tylus of Miihlig ? And if so, what are the differential characters ? 

 Compared with bertrami, dichrodactylus is said to present the 

 following points of distinction : — 



First. — " The palpi are decidedly longer " (Sang, E. M. M. 

 xviii. 144). I have carefully examined the palpi of both insects, 

 and quite fail to see that there is any perceptible difference in 

 their respective lengths. 



Secondly. — The tip of outer digit is rendered more acute by 

 the deeper concavity of the hind margin of that digit (Id.). As 

 has been adverted to in the description of bertrami, the tip of the 

 outer digit is variable as regards its structure ; in some specimens 

 the hind margin of the outer digit is strongly emarginate, and the 

 tip is in consequence produced and very acute. 



Thirdly. — " The tibiae are brown at the middle and apex, and 

 there is a brown spot at the end of the first tarsal joint " (Stainton, 

 E. M. M. ii. 138). Identical markings exist on the hind legs of 

 fresh examples of bertrami. 



Fourthly. — Larva feeds in " July, and the moth appears in 



ENTOM.— NOV., 1885. 2 o 



