266 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



would not apply to all the specimens, because many collectors 

 still use gilt or white pins. 



The consequence of the antiquity of the specimens is, that 

 with an insect like cristana, which for a small moth greases 

 very badly, there is a great amount of verdigris apparent, which 

 will make it necessary to re- pin and reset practically the whole. 



Unfortunately they are very inadequately labelled. In 

 his earlier years Webb put small circular labels on the pins, 

 with the name of the collection from which they were derived 

 written thereon ; all the Bond specimens are so labelled, and 

 some of the Mason and Buruey specimens also ; but those 

 derived from Clark are almost entirely without data, with the 

 exception of the types, all of which have a special label. Clark 

 scarcely did any labelling, and the others none at all. 



Sidney Webb acquired most of his specimens late in life, 

 when his eyesight, probably never very good, judging from the 

 fact that he habitually used glasses comparatively early, was 

 manifestly unequal to the task of discriminating between the 

 various aberrations of this protean species, and although he 

 had grouped his specimens according to the known aberrational 

 names, many of them were wrongly named, and some of the 

 series grouped under one name consisted of examples of two or 

 even three forms. 



After he acquired Clark's cristana Webb wrote a paper on 

 them in the ' Entomologist,' vol. xliii, pp. 198 and 265, and 

 vol. xliv, pp. 289 and 308, presumably to correct certain errors 

 in Clark's monograph to be found in the ' Ent. Record,' xiii. 



This paper is an interesting one, valuable in recording facts 

 respecting certain forms, of which possibly he alone of all men 

 living was aware. Unfortunately in addition to defective eye- 

 sight, leading him to make numerous mistakes, he had a very 

 superficial knowledge of the subject, whilst of the law governing 

 scientific nomenclature he does not seem to have known even 

 the elements ; the result is that he made more mistakes 

 than those which he corrected. 



One obvious source of misconception of the named forms 

 of cristana is the coloured plate in Clark's paper {loc. cit.) of 

 the types of his named forms. It is known that Clark was very 

 dissatisfied with this plate ; he had good reason to be so, for 

 it is a very inferior one, and the figures are quite unreliable. 

 This is only fully apparent when one compares it with the 

 actual types. I have the following observations to make on 

 these figures : 



Fig. 1, ab. nigrocristana. Clark says : " The difference between 

 this aberration and typical cristana is very marked, the form 

 having a black button instead of a white one." In the figure 

 the button is of a rather lighter brown than the surrounding 

 portions of the wing. 



