278 THE KNTOMOLOGIST. 



sallows are universally common it is probable that a race occurring 

 in a locality where the osier grows would not confine itself solely 

 to this plant, but would feed in a large number of generations 

 upon other species of the same family. Now as natural selection 

 is an extremely slow process it would probably require a great 

 number of generations on one line of descent of osier-fed 

 specimens to produce a marked departure from the original 

 type, and as a large number of individuals of this line in each 

 generation would undoubtedly wander to and from this food- 

 plant, the tendency to favourable variation acquired in one 

 generation would be neutralised in the next, and so on. Some 

 seven or eight years I have bred this species from sallow catkins 

 gathered in various localities ; the average number of specimens 

 has been, say, five dozen per annum, and of the variety (excepting 

 one season) about two per cent, of the total number. On several 

 of the above occasions my catkins were gathered from Breadsall 

 JNIoor, near Derby, and from these alone did Jiavescens emerge. 

 In the spring of 1885 I collected about a pint of catkins, and bred 

 from them fifty-three specimens, of which no less than eighteen 

 were this variety. These came from the same bush oif which I 

 had several times previously taken catkins, with first-mentioned 

 result. I have often asked entomologists who have bred this 

 species from osier-fed specimens if they have been more 

 successful than myself in procuring this variet}^ but have not 

 met with anyone who has. From the above observations it would 

 appear that Xanthia fulvago var. Jiavescens is a local form and to 

 a very large extent hereditary, for only on the assumption that 

 the parent moth which deposited the ova on catkins collected in 

 1885 was this form can one account for the large number of it 

 emerging that year. — W. G. Sheldon ; Rose Cottage, Oval 

 Road, Addiscombe, August 13, 1887. 



Abraxas grossulariata, Var. — During May I collected two 

 or three hundred larvae of A. grossulariata, and bred a most 

 peculiar variety with no white in it at all, but where the white is 

 in the ordinary specimens, is yellow, like the usual transverse 

 band. I see no account of such a variety in Newman's work, so 

 thought it might interest your readers. — R. B. Robertson; New 

 Lodge, Hartley Wintney, Winchfield, Hants, August 29, 1887. 



Cleora angularia in Hants. — I had the good fortune to 

 meet with a specimen of Cleora angularia {viduaria) in the New 



