IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 121 



" liairsplitters who are purely European workers " (' Trans. Ent. Soc. of 

 London,' 1890, p. 683). This is an error. We have always differentiated 

 two species which Mr. Butler erroneously lumps together. We used 

 to call our two species, vaccinii, Linn, and spadicea, Haw. The latter name 

 gave way to the prior name of ligula, Esp., so that ligula, Esp. = spa- 

 dicea, Haw. ; vaccinii has always remained unchanged. Mr. Butler, 

 too, states that " Zeller had 70 specimens and left a typical ligida among 

 his vaccinii and divided the remainder somewhere in the middle, being 

 evidently unable to find any constant character by which to distinguish 

 them " (I.e.). It is not at all probable that Zeller left a typical ligula 

 with vaccinii, and Mr. Butler simply states his own inability to dis- 

 tinguish them when he remarks that " Zeller could not find a character," 

 as Zeller did distinguish them and divided them into their respective 

 species. 



Orrhodia, Hb., ligula, Esp. 



Vol. iii., p. 4. Orrhodia ligula var. ? (ab. subspadicea, var.) Stdgr. 

 I have already (vol. iii., p. 5 and p. 6) referred Staudinger's var. sub- 

 spadicea to Haworth's var. spadicea. Of the Central Asiatic specimens 

 Staudinger writes : " Orrhodia ligula var. ? (ab. subspadicea, var.), 

 Stdgr. Two large specimens from Lepsa, having a reddish-brown 

 ground colour mixed with yellow-grey, I am inclined to class with 

 ligula, which I am not at all sure is distinct from vaccinii. Some of 

 my subspadicea closely resemble these Asiatic specimens, which differ 

 decidedly from all other forms " (' Stettiner entomologische Zeitung,' 

 vol. xliii., p. 47). 



Vol. iii., p. 4. Orrhodia ligida vars. politina, Stdgr. and subspadi- 

 ceana, Stdgr. Of these forms Dr. Staudinger writes : " 0. ligula vars. 

 politina and subspadiceana. Specimens of an Orrhodia were taken in 

 large numbers at the end of February, near Margelan, and differ 

 principally in the lighter ground coloring from the European specimens. 

 Without entering into the difficult separation of the single vars. of 

 forms of ligula and vaccinii (which perhaps belong to one species), I 

 name as var. politina the Central Asiatic specimens with light ashy- 

 grey fore wings. They show mostly a more or less faint reddish-brown 

 dark band before the reddish-white fringes and the lighter outer edges 

 of the wings. Very rarely, light- grey specimens like politina are taken in 

 Europe as aberrations, which, however, can be clearly distinguished 

 from them. Even in Central Asia this form, politina, occurs really as a 

 frequent aberration, for most specimens from there are of a reddish -brown 

 colour on the fore wings, but much paler and tinged with grey. The 

 hind wings of the var. subspadiceana are light in colour, similar to 

 politina by which they are distinguished from all European forms which 

 are similarly marked on the fore wings " (' Stettiner entomologische 

 Zeitung,' vol. xlix., p. 35). 



Hoporina, Bdv., croceago, Fab. 



Vol. iii., p. 8. Hoporina croceago var. Corsica, Mab. For 

 " Mabelle " read " Mabille." 



Xanthia, Och., gilvago, Esp. 



Vol. iii., p. 14. Xanthia gilvago var. and ab. palleago, Hb. Dr. 

 Staudinger records specimens of gilvago from Central Asia, of which he 

 writes : "Taken at Lepsa, but they differ materially from the Euro- 



