210 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
raising the question myself in the ‘Entomologist. Here, in 
Ireland (Killarney), I have never taken the insect earlier than 
mid-April; and a fortnight later in Cavan, Tyrone, and Sligo, 
where in normal seasons crepuscularia is abundant about 
mid-May. Single stray specimens I have seen as late as June 
10th; and at the same time a few also of Tephrosia consonaria 
and Boarmia cinctaria, insects which began to appear the same 
season during the second week of April. All these specimens I 
therefore looked upon as cases of retarded emergence. ‘The 
type of the insect thus taken at the end of April at Killarney, 
and mid-May in the North of Ireland, has the ground colour 
yellowish, with the second line duplicated by a ferruginous 
band, and the wings flecked with yellowish patches. A few 
specimens also occur at the same time and place, with an almost 
white ground colour, and the second line dark brown, sharply 
etched in, and less interruptedly than in the yellower form. This 
whitish insect, as far as appearance goes, should be biundularia ; 
and I have accordingly, in the docile spirit of an enquirer, 
labelled it so in my cabinet; but I am, up to the present, 
sceptical. Even if our climate permitted this insect to emerge 
earlier and produce a second brood in the same season, which, 
like the summer form of Selenia lwnaria var. delunaria, is smaller 
and of peculiar coloration, the habit would not be phenomenal. 
I have never had the opportunity of ascertaining whether at Kal- 
larney a July emergence takes place. I notice that in Birchall’s 
list, J’. biwndularia is said to abound in many localities in 
Ireland, but 7’. crepuscularia is absent from the list. Perhaps the 
nomenclature at the date of Birchall’s catalogue was different, 
and the synonymy not established. The whole problem, as 
stated by your correspondents, is a most complex one, namely, 
that a pale insect emerging in March and April in the Sonth of 
England has a summer form of a warmer tone, while in the same 
locality a very similar insect emerging in May to June assumes 
the livery of the summer form of the other species, but also has 
occasional specimens of the pale form. Both species also appear 
to have melanic varieties of various shades of smoke-colour 
(which, however, I have never seen in Ireland). It is very 
satisfactory that the theories held by various competent entomo- 
logists on the subject have been so fully set forth in your 
columns; but it is not likely that the matter can be finally 
