ON A PROBABLE NEW SPECIES IN THE CRAMBIDZ., 27 
narrower winged insect. The markings are decidedly different, 
and the ground colour is of a very different shade. While working 
on the same ground quite a fortnight earlier, in 1884, I looked out 
for the species; and, by dint of hard work and the expenditure of 
a great amount of time, I succeeded in taking about three dozen, 
nearly one-half of which were so worn as to be useless for accurate 
comparison. The others were in beautiful condition, about 
fourteen males exhibiting a variation in colour from black (two 
specimens) and rich brown to pale grey; the females being all of 
a very pale grey, with the anterior wings much elongated, almost 
pointed. These I compared later with the Doubleday insects, and 
came to the same conclusion as before, viz., that they could not 
be Crambus contaminellus, which certainly, as far as the 
Doubleday insects are concerned, seemed very constant in colour 
and markings. 
Some three weeks later (about November or December, 1884) 
I met Mr. Coverdale at the Bethnal Green Museum, and, strangely 
enough, among other specimens he had brought for comparison 
were two males of the identical Crambus ? These specimens he had 
taken at Shoeburyness the previous July; and, still stranger, one 
was the undoubtedly rare black form, the other being a grey form. 
He compared them with the Doubleday insects, noticed several 
points of difference, and expressed his intention of working up 
the species next season (1885). I told him I had a series of the 
same insect from Deal, and invited him to come to my house to 
see them, which he did some five or six weeks later. We then 
agreed to try our best to get a long series of the insect; he, at 
Shoeburyness; I, at Deal. Unfortunately circumstances did not 
permit him to do so (most entomological friends will, I suppose, 
know by this time that we have lost one of our hardest workers, 
as he has gone to the United States for an indefinite period), and 
I was left to my own devices at Deal, obtaining about four or five 
dozen specimens in a month, only one very dark one occurring 
amongst them. I have now a fine series of the species (which I 
shall be glad to show to anyone interested in the matter) of every 
conceivable shade of colour, between black and pale grey, and 
varying exceedingly in the intensity of the markings. Mr. 
Coverdale’s collection, which is now in my hands, contains two 
specimens of undoubted Crambus contaminellus, labelled with 
Mr. Threlfall’s name, and coming, I presume, from Lancashire ; 
