NOTES ON THE VARIATION OF PERONEA CRISTANA, FAB. 15 
(3) Curtisana. I have already given the reasons why I 
consider ab. charlottana, Clark, should fall before this. 
(4) Tolana. The identity of this form has puzzled many 
students of cristana, including Clark and Mason, neither of whom 
knew it; but there can be no reasonable doubt but that Webb’s 
definition of it (loc. cit., vol. xlili, p. 199) is the correct one. 
(5) Provittana. This aberration seems to be very imper- 
fectly understood. Webb in his paper (loc. cit., xliv, p. 291) does 
not attempt to define it, but the series of examples so labelled 
in his collection do not agree with Desvignes’ description, and 
are very near to fulvostriana, Dsvgs. 
The form that usually passes muster in our collections for 
provittana is a rusty insect in every way resembling semiustana, 
Curt., but with a cream-coloured vitta, head and thorax, but this 
again does not agree with the original description by Desvignes, 
who says: ‘‘ Peronea profanana. Var. 1, profanana, Fab., 
cinereous, with tufts of scales of the same colour. Var. 2, 
provittana, Des., similar, with a yellow dash.” ‘To realise what 
provittana is we must. first find out what profanana, Fab. is, and 
what Desvignes thought it was. Fabricius’s description is as 
quoted by Desvignes: ‘‘Alis cinereis; puncto medio fusco.” 
Now what does Fabricius mean by “ cinereis”’ ? One would think 
ash-coloured, or gray without any tinge of brown; but if one 
turns to ‘Ent. Syst.’ and runs through it, and especially through 
the descriptions of the Pyrales, Crambites and Tortrices, which 
were written approximately at the date on which he wrote that 
of profanana, one finds quite a number of species in which this 
word is used, some of which are pure grey, but others are 
distinctly tinged with brown—for instance, Crambus pratellus, 
C. pascuellus, Z. grisealis, A. pinguinalis, and J’. crataegana. 
Turning next to the figures of profanana, and the descriptions 
of it, at the date that Desvignes wrote (1845), one finds in Wood, 
‘Index Entomologicus,’ fig. 1047 (1839), a distinctly brown insect, 
it is moreover both in this work and in Westwood a few years later, 
named the ‘“‘rusty button.’ Stephens (‘ Haust,’ vol. iv, p. 149, 
(1834), speaks of it as rusty griseous. Wood’s figure (loc. cit.) shows 
a dark base, costal blotch, and apex; and Stephens (loc. cit.), 
alludes to these dark markings, and there can be little doubt but 
that when these authors’ works appeared these were held to be 
the characteristics of ab. profanana. These dark cloudings are 
not mentioned by Fabricius, and therefore they should not apply 
to the type, but I think we must consider what was in Desvignes’ 
mind when he named ab. provittana, and there can be but little 
doubt that he saw a form with these darker blotches. 
It is evident that in translating ‘ cinereis’’ we must use a 
considerable amount of latitude and include anything that is grey 
or greyish brown, and so provittana becomes, I take it, a form 
with greyish-brown superiors, blotched with darker brown and 
