4 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



a description of the principal varieties which are known to 

 occur. 



Var. radiata. — In addition to the specimen figured in West- 

 wood and Humphrey's 'British Moths,' plate xviii. figure 19, 

 1843, which was taken in Yorkshire, and that figured by 

 Newman in the 'Entomologist,' vol. vii. 169 (1874), stated to 

 have been sent to him by Mr. Dawson, of Driffield, there is 

 an example in the Allis collection at the York Museum, which 

 I had the pleasure of examining in company with Mr. S. J. 

 Capper, on October 19th. This specimen, although not so 

 dark as some of the choicest forms of radiata lately bred by 

 Messrs. Harrison, Young, Tugwell, and Porritt, is to all in- 

 tents and purposes identical with them, and exactly corre- 

 sponded with some two dozen specimens of radiata which 

 Mr. S. J. Capper had with him on that occasion. There is 

 neither date, locality, nor name of captor affixed to this or indeed 

 to any of the specimens in the collection, but I think it can be 

 taken for granted that it is a York or Yorkshire specimen. The 

 only other record that I have been able to obtain of radiata 

 having occurred in Yorkshire, previous to the introduction of 

 Mr. Harrison's fine form in 1891, is that of three specimens 

 which were taken at rest, not bred, by Mr. Sweeney, at Driffield, 

 some twelve or fifteen years ago. These specimens, which I 

 have seen on three separate occa.sions, are smaller than those 

 bred by Mr. Harrison, but identical in every other j)articular 

 with specimens sent to me by Messrs. Porritt and Tugwell, and 

 with which I compared them. They are in fair condition, 

 decidedly aged, and set on household pins. As far as I am 

 aware I do not see any reason for doubting their authenticity, 

 which I think is beyond dispute. Thus we have records of six 

 specimens of radiata having been taken or bred in Yorkshire 

 previous to 1891, and I am firmly convinced, that had the works 

 of Darwin and Wallace been more widely read, and the prin- 

 ciples of heredity and artificial selection therein explained better 

 understood and acted up to, we should not have had to wait until 

 1891 to see this truly grand form bred for the first time in 

 England as the result of artificial selection. 



Mr. Harrison, of Barnsley, whose fine and extensive series of 

 radiata and intermediate forms I have had the pleasure of seeing, 

 and to whom I wrote for particulars of the variation of S. luhri- 

 cipeda in his district, says : — " I do not remember ever breeding 

 S. luhricipeda in any form previous to 1891 ; in fact my series 

 had been picked up casually and were only the ordinary form, 

 neither radiata, ehoraci, nor fasciata ; and I distinctly say that not 

 any of these three forms occur in this district to my knowledge, 

 neither in a wood nor any weedy garden, as reported [see 'Ento- 

 mological Transactions' (London), part 4, November meeting, 

 1892, page xxix, for my original and true history]. My original 



