270 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The total number of forms that I have been able to locate as 

 having occurred in the New Forest for the past ten or twelve 

 j'^ears is therefore fifty-two. 



In addition to these there are the following old records : 

 ab. capucina, Johnson, the original type specimen ('Ann. Mag. 

 Nat. Hist.,' X, p. 366) ; ab. albofiammana, Curt. Mr. Sydney Webb 

 mentions having taken this form in 1891 {cp. 'Ent.,' xxiv, p. 271). 



In the foregoing list I have included the name sepiana n. ab. 

 The head and palpi of this aberration are ashy grey, the 

 superiors are of an almost unicolorous grey-brown, of a tint 

 intermediate between that of abs. siibunicolorana and profanana ; 

 the button and a number of minute points are dark fuscous; there 

 is no trace of a vitta. I have five examples of this form from 

 the New Forest and one from Epping Forest, and I have seen in 

 various collections quite a number which came from the Hamp- 

 shire locality. 



It will be noted that I have included in the list two specimens 

 of ab. xanthovittana, and one of ab. nigrosuhvittana. The deter- 

 mination of these forms by the authorities is exceedingly vague, 

 and therefore it seems incumbent upon me to explain precisely 

 what these specimens of mine are. 



To take first ab. xanthoviitana. Desvignes's description 

 (' Zool.,' iii, p. 841, 1845) is indefinite and quite insuflicient. 

 He says : " Similar to ab. unicolorana and ab. alhojiammana, but 

 with a yellow or fulvous dash ; palpi, head and thorax of the 

 same colour." This description is quoted by Clark ; in his 

 paper {I. c.) he describes another form, ab. j^^'oxanthorittana, 

 which he diagnoses, "The almost complete absence of the button 

 constitutes a marked difference between this aberration and 

 ab. xanthovittana" Obviously, therefore, he intended to express 

 his conviction that the two forms were alike, except that one had 

 a button and the other bad not, or had only a very small one ; 

 he does not, however, say what colour the button in ab. xantho- 

 vittana is ; neither does Desvignes ; and therefore we are in 

 doubt upon the point, except that, as the latter does not call 

 attention to the button, it was probably of the same colour as 

 the surrounding area of the superiors, ?. e. a shade of brown. 



Turning next to ' Ent.,' xliii, p. 266, we find Mr. Sydney 

 Webb — whose knowledge of the forms of P. cristana in the old 

 collections is probably at the present day unique — writes of a 

 " similarly coloured brown tufted insect, which has long stood in 

 a mixed series in our cabinets under the name oi xanthovittana." 

 (The italics are mine.) I should say that Mr. Webb expresses 

 the opinion that Desvignes's description, " similar to ab, uni- 

 colorana and ab. alhojiammana" means "absence of the central 

 tuft," which, of course, these two forms possess in common with 

 ab. proxanthovittana, Clark, and thereupon sinks the latter as 

 being identical with ab. xanthovittana Dsvs. 



