(738.9) 
all 
XXXII. On the nictitans group of the Genus Hydroecia, 
Gn. By the Rev. UC. R. N. Burrows, F.ES. 
[Read December 6th, 1911.] 
Puiates LI-LVIII. 
Ir will be remembered that Mr. Tutt delivered a short 
address upon the “Separation of British Species of 
Hydroecia” before this Society on March 16th, 1910. 
The address was illustrated by drawings of the four 
different forms of genitalia in both sexes, which Mr. 
Pierce and I had detected in the insects which had been 
included by most Lepidopterists under the name of 
Hydroecia nictitans. It was with great pleasure that I 
listened to Mr. Tutt, as I felt that it was only right that 
he, who had twenty years before suggested the specific 
distinctness of H. paludis and H. lucens, should make the 
announcement that this distinctness had been clearly 
proved. Unfortunately, it was not at that time possible 
to publish the illustrations which are so necessary to 
elucidate the points of difference between insects which 
resemble one another so closely, and it was understood 
that later on Mr. Tutt would put the matter more 
definitely before the Society. He had taken up the 
matter whole-heartedly, was engaged in examining the 
points himself, and supervising the execution of the 
necessary illustrations, when his last illness overtook him, 
and the matter had to be shelved. 
It is under these circumstances that I have been urged 
to carry out what Mr. Tutt planned, and I ask indulgence 
if I seem to fall short of the lucidity which that lamented 
entomologist could command. 
In the “ Entomologist” for 1888, p. 307, I find what I 
believe to be the first public intimation of Mr. Tutt’s 
dissatisfaction with the specific identity of the various 
forms then accepted as H/. nictitans. He there treats the 
form which he names paludis as a local race, or variety, 
of nictitans. Lucens, which had been introduced as a 
separate species by Freyer and accepted by Herrich- 
Schaeffer as such, he recognises as “really mictitans, 
and not distinct.” 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1911.—PART IV. (JAN.) 
