NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 43 



NOTES AND OBSEEVATIONS. 



Ckocallis elinguaria f. signatipennis. — Before seeing Mr. 

 Porritt's note {antea, p. 258) and Mr. Smart's note {antea, p. 278) I 

 should have said that this form was decidedly scarce. During about 

 twenty-five years' collecting in Lancashire and Yorkshire I have not 

 met with this form, neither has it been brought to the meetings of 

 the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society until Mr. Smith 

 showed us his example. My own series of C. elinguaria comprises 

 specimens from Leeds, Huddersfield, S. Lancashire, Delamere and 

 Penmaenmawr ; it has been selected from large numbers bred from 

 wild larvaj at different times, yet nothing like signatiiicnnis has 

 occurred to me. The notes alluded to above indicate that in the 

 Huddersfield district the newly-named form may exist as a local 

 race, and it would be interesting if the resident collectors could give 

 us some definite idea as to the relative proportions that signatij^ennis 

 bears to the form with normal shaped band. Mosley's fig. 5, pi. i, 

 shows a more extreme form than Mr. Smith's (vol. lii, p. 226, fig. 2), 

 in that the lines are joined considerably before they reach the inner 

 margin, and in Barrett's fig. Ig, pi. 293, they approach but do 

 not meet, whereas in the type of signatipennis they just coalesce and 

 the band terminates in a point. — Wm. Mansbeidge ; Dunraven, 

 Church Eoad, Wavertree, Liverpool. 



Variation in the Plusid^. — Mr. C. G. Clutterbuck is to be con- 

 gratulated in discovering such a beautiful and extreme variety of 

 Plusia jmlchrina. The form mentioned by the Jate Mr. Barrett as 

 from Omagh, Co. Tyrone, with a large orange spot in the middle of 

 the fore wings, no doubt refers to a variety not infrequent locally, 

 with an orange-coloured, wedge-shaped blotch, just below the Y mark, 

 and in extreme specimens extending to the inner margin. It may be 

 of interest to note here a rare variation in the allied P. festuccs, in 

 which the two metallic blotches are joined together, forming a wedge- 

 shaped mark across centre of fore wings. The name juncta may well 

 indicate this form. — Thomas Greer; Carglasson, Stewartstown, Co. 

 Tyrone. 



Abnormal Specimens of Abraxas grossulariata. — A rather 

 curious specimen of Abraxas grossulariata emerged from a pupa I 

 had last summer. I was careless enough to let the pupa get very 

 wet while I was keeping it, and I had no expectation at all that the 

 imago would emerge. However, it did, and the abdomen of the moth 

 was very wrinkled and colourless, as one might expect. The wings 

 were, however, quite perfect, and the left wings and the hind right 

 wing were all reasonably normal in marking. The right fore wing, 

 however, had the black spots on the inside of the yellow band merged 

 together in a very peculiar manner as though the colours had run. 

 The effect is an irregular-looking smear in the centre of the wing. 

 Could such an occurrence be the result of the damp, or is it a natural 

 variety of this extremely variable species ? — Arthur Sopwith ; 

 Chasetown, nr. Walsall. 



Bombus and Vespa Species in the Eannoch District. — I was 

 interested during my stay at Bannoch in investigating the species of 



