ik fide Bmi'isa ISLANDS. 101 



Cord the capture of a most splendid specimen of Xylina zinckemiai sugar 

 in Darenth Wood, on the 3rd of October : I took it from the reverse 

 side of the tree to that which I had sugared. I was accompanied at 

 the time by Messrs. F. Standish, Fryer, and other friends" ('Entomo- 

 logist,' vol. v., p. 204). After a note by Mr. Knaggs, in which he 

 criticised Guenee's notes (just previously quoted) referring to the 

 statement of Fabricius when he compared lamda with Cuspidiapsi, Mr. 

 Henry Doubleday wrote : " In the < Entomologist's Annual,' my 

 friend Mr. Knaggs states that M. Guenee's remarks upon what 

 Fabricius says of this species (supposing it to be his lamda} surprise 

 him. I think them very just, as I cannot see any resemblance between 

 it and Acronycta psi either in form, colour or markings. It is very 

 nearly allied to X. conformis, and some of the specimens approach this 

 species so closely that, but for their smaller size, they might easily be 

 confounded with it. I possess two from Lapland which have hardly 

 a trace of the ordinary black markings on the superior wings " (' Ent. 

 Mo. Mag.,' iii., p. 235). I quite agree in a general way with Mr. 

 Doubleday's remarks, but at the same time there is a broad resemblance 

 between X. lamda and C. psi, and the comparison is no worse than 

 many others made by Fabricius with his limited knowledge of the 

 species of the NOCTILSB. His description certainly applies to this 

 species. Of X. zinckenii, Mr. E. Hopley writes : " The following 

 must be amongst the earliest captures of this rarity. A brother col- 

 lector, a neighbour, lately brought me as a present, what he and his 

 friends at the time (October, 1865) considered a strange example of 

 Acronycta psi. At this date it may be borne in mind, that Dr. Knaggs 

 had not identified anything British born with X. zinckenii. It appears that 

 my friend was out pupee digging in the northern environs of London, 

 when, rising from the root of a poplar, he was surprised to observe 

 this fine example of what struck him as one of a second brood of A. 

 psi at rest upon the bark. He had neither pill nor collecting box 

 merely a small cradle for his " diggings." However, he fortunately 

 had a pin, and a cylinder hat, in which the illustrious stranger was 

 duly installed. Until kindly taken out for me, it had ever since re- 

 mained in his duplicate box " (< Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. v., p. 252) ; 

 whilst Mr. J. T. Carrington writes : " Mr. Bond has a fine example of 

 X. lamda, taken near Erith, in September, 1875, by Mr. W. Marshall " 

 ('Entom.,' ix., p. 191). 



a. var. somniculosa, Bering. Of this more unicolorous variety, 

 Staudinger writes : " Magis unicolor " and adds that it scarcely 

 deserves a name. Guenee writes : " The ground colour of an uniform 

 greyish- violet, with the markings partly obliterated, above all on the 

 outer margin : the median shade alone remains, and the longitudinal 

 black streaks appear more distinct and are the only markings 

 which are edged with white. Prussia " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 119), 

 whilst M. Sven Lampa writes : " Rather unicolorous, grey not 

 reddish, with faint markings. Hind wings and fringes rose-reddish. 

 Antennae of $ with only two bristles on each joint " (' Entom. 

 Tidskrift,' 1885, p. 77). Several Scandinavian localities are also given 

 for this variety so that this is probably the more unicolorous form 

 referred to by Mr. Doubleday, and before noticed, when he writes : " I 

 have two specimens from Lapland which have hardly a trace of the ordi- 



