THE ENTOMOLOGIST. lOl 



tible on the upper side of poor specimens. This insect 

 stands in my ' Lepidoptera of the District around Liverpool,' 

 published in 1857, as " Acidalia subsericearia, Haw., not un- 

 common on the pasture-lands near the sand-hills of Leasowe ; 

 a few taken in lanes around Bidston, &c. ;" and it also ap- 

 pears in Mr. Brockholes' ' Lepidoptera of Wirrall,' Cheshire, 

 as taken by himself near Leasowe sand-hills. That it is dis- 

 tinct from the subsericeala of the western cabinets is self- 

 evident, but that it differs from Haworth's insect is not so 

 clear to me, and I have long believed there would be a pro- 

 priety in changing its name, or of giving a new name to the 

 Bristol insect which stands in most cabinets as subsericeata 

 of Haworth. [Guenee, after describing Haworth's Acidalia 

 subsericeata, makes the following observation : — " Haworth 

 has described this species in such a manner that it cannot be 

 mistaken, but he lays stress on the absence of the cellular 

 dot, a character by no means constant. It varies extremely 

 in shape, in the character of the transverse lines, which are 

 more or less sinuous, and in their relative distance from each 

 other; I am therefore inclined to think that it comprises two, 

 three, or even lour distinct species ; nevertheless I have been 

 unable, up to the present time, to find constant characters 

 whereby to separate them with certainty." To this 1 ought 

 to add that the larvae, of which Mr. Gregson has permitted 

 me to add a somewhat lengthy description, appears to corre- 

 spond rather closely with that of Acidalia subsericeata, so 

 ably described by Mr. Crewe at page 8732 of the ' Zoologist.'] 

 — C. S. Gregson ; the additions in editorial brackets by 

 Edward Neivman. 



Description of the Larva of Acidalia fumaia. — The moth 

 flies in swarms over and amongst Calluna vulgaris (common 

 ling), on the hills of the West of Scotland ; but whether the 

 female deposits her eggs on the ling or on the dwarf Salices 

 (sallows) has not been ascertained. The eggs from which the 

 caterpillars now described emerged, were laid in a pill-box 

 in August, and have fed freely on sallow. The full-grown 

 larva rests with the claspers firndy attached to the edge of a 

 leaf, the body, from the ventral claspers to the head, being 

 kept perfectly rigid, and held in a straight position at an 

 angle of 45 degrees, the head being semiprone, and the tiset 

 crowded together and directed forwards ; it sometimes tucks 



