'' of i. 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. / 



Vol. LIII.] JANUAEY, 1920. [No. 680 



EDITORIAL. 



We have to announce, with very much pleasure, that Messrs. 

 W. G. Sheldon and N. D. Eiley have kindly consented to act 

 on the Reference Committee of this Journal. 



A NEW FORM OF PLUSIA PULCHRINA, Haw. 



By C. Granville Clutterbuck, F.E.S. 



The accompanying figure shows a form of j^ulchrina taken 

 by me on our hills near Gloucester on June 21st, 1919, 

 together with a type faken here on May ti6th, 1893, for com- 

 parison. The variation may be described as slightly larger 

 than the type, the purple-brown ground-colour being more 

 brilliant and the usual golden Y-mark being replaced by a large 

 wedge-shaped golden blotch. The space between the hind 

 margin and the subterminal line on the fore wings is filled in 

 with a beautiful pink shade. The specimen, a male, was taken 

 at rest on a leaf of a small ash-tree growing by the side of the 

 wood-path, and is in perfect condition, with the exception of the 

 apex of the right fore wing, which is chipped slightly. It was 

 shown to Mr. H. Rowland-Brown, F.E.S., a few days after 

 capture, and pronounced by him to be a new form, if not 

 a new species. I had the pleasure of showing him the bush 

 from which it was taken. I have also shown it to Mr. A. B. 

 Farn, who is kind enough to say it is " the catch of the season." 

 It is a species very little liable to variation, and in Mr. Farn's 

 long series there is only one variety, and in that the golden Y is 

 replaced by a small golden dot. Mr. E. W. Lipton has kindly 

 shown me his copy of Seitz' ' Macro-lepidoptera of the World,' 

 and there is nothing like this variety figured in that work. 

 Barrett says, in vol. vi, p. 117: " Variation is usually very slight, 

 and confined to the degree of completeness of the Y and the 

 extent of chocolate shading. Some specimens, however, taken 

 in Gloucestershire by the Rev. Alexander Nash, are pale pinkish- 

 purple, with violet reflections and a very pretty curved stripe of 

 paler colour close to the base. In Sligo, Westmeath, and else- 

 where in Ireland it is found in a rich, dark, strongly rippled 



ENTOM. — JANUARY, 1920. B 



