IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 97 



specimens examined were the true extrema of Hiibner, it is quite cer- 

 tain that bondii is a distinct species. Lederer refers Herrich-Schaffer's 

 figure 336 to hellmanni without any mark of doubt, and 337 to extrema, 

 Hub. ; but if the above-quoted remarks of Treitschke be correct, it 

 cannot possibly represent this species. I believe it was taken from a 

 female concolor, but I do not think this species has occurred on the 

 Continent, unless the specimens which Lederer captured some 

 years since in a marsh near Vienna were concolor. In July 1843, 

 I took several concolor to Paris, and the late M. Pierrot, to whom 

 I gave them, said it was a species unknown to him, but was 

 probably the extrema of Hiibner. In 1844, the late M. Becker had 

 specimens from me, and as he sent many species which he procured 

 in England to Herrich-Schaffer, I think it very probable that his 

 figure 337 was taken from one of my specimens " (' Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine,' vol. iii., p. 257). 



What a pleasure it would be to relegate such a name as extrema 

 to oblivion. The figure looks like bondii. Treitschke who saw the 

 original specimens, says that Hiibner's figure agrees with them. Zeller 

 says that he does not consider that extrema represents bondii. Doubleday 

 says that Herrich-Schaffer's extrema was probably figured from one of 

 our British concolor. Ochsenheimer made extrema the female of fulva, 

 and had, Staudinger avers, a fulva and a concolor above the label in 

 his collection. Staudinger referred extrema to concolor in the ' Stettiner 

 entom. Zeitung ' for 1869, but after he had seen what is supposed to 

 be the specimen actually figured by Hiibner, with its dark cilia, he 

 wrote, not that it was identical with concolor, but that " it came nearest 

 to a whitish female concolor, Gn., but certainly with blackish cilia," 

 so that he, himself, was evidently not then quite satisfied even with the 

 actual specimen under his eye, although from his * Catalog,' 1871, 

 he became certain after. It appears certain that when exact nomen- 

 clature is to be satisfied, the name extrema, with all its uncertainties 

 and differences of opinion, will have to disappear altogether from 

 our lists, as synonymous neither with bondii nor concolor, so much 

 uncertainty is connected with it, whilst the undoubted identity of 

 morrisii, Dale with bondii, Knaggs, will throw the latter name also 

 out of the lists, the two species standing respectively as : 



Tapinostola concolor, Gn. 



extrema, Hb. ? 

 Chortodes morrisii, Dale. 

 bondii, Knaggs. 

 extrema, Hb. ? 



It will be well, perhaps, for the use of future readers, to quote 

 in full Mr. Stainton's translation of Dr. Staudinger's article on the 

 subject, as references are not always easily made in magazines as years 

 pass by. Dr. Staudinger writes : " Tapinostola extrema, Hb., fig. 412. 

 That we have had this somewhat puzzling species standing in our 

 collections under another name, has long been tolerably evident to 

 me. Hiibner's figure 412 must, at any rate, have been made from 

 an abnormal specimen, since a perfectly white NOCTUA with black cilia 

 to the anterior wings has probably never been found. It was just 

 possible that the English NOCTUA bondii, might be the true extrema of 

 Hiibner, since that species in the coloration and spots of the anterior 



G 



