886 



The foregoing will show how much better it would have been for Harris, 

 Wilkes, and Donovan, not to have copied from Fuesel : and that our species 

 is not the Malva of Linnaeus, which now goes under the name of Alcea, Esp. 



Lewi 11, in his " Insects of Great Britain," 1795, writes, " Spotted Skipper. 

 Malva, Linnaeus. The caterpillars of this butterfly feed on the leaves of the 

 bramble bushes. They web the edges of the leaf together, and from this 

 cover they come out a little way to feed ; but the least motion of the leaf 

 they return to their retreat, and if they be much alarmed, they drop to the 

 ground. The end of April they are full-fed, when they enclose themselves 

 in a slight web, under cover of a leaf, and there change to chysalis. In that 

 state they remain about fourteen days, as the fly comes out on the wing the 

 beginning of May. The butterfly is pretty common in the dry parts of woods 

 and heaths/' 



Haworth, in his " Lepidoptera Britannicse," 1803, writes of Halva, '* That 

 it frequents pastures/' 



Curtis, in his " British Entomology," 1833, writes, Alveolus, Hub. 

 Halves, Haw. Cardui, Goda. End of May, beginning of June, meadows, 

 commons, woods. Malvte, Linn. I have found at Toulon, and believe it is 

 not British, although Donovan's figures appear to be this species/' 



Stephens, in his " Illustrations of British Entomology," 1828, writes, "An 

 elegant, variable, and far from uncommon insect ; frequenting woods, com- 

 mons, dry banks, and meadows, about the end of May, near Newcastle 

 common. In the fens of Cambridgeshire, plentifully. Malva has consider- 

 able resemblance to Tages, but is easily known by its dentated wings. This 

 species has doubtless been introduced into the indigenous fauna by Stuart, 

 owing to the unfortunate misappropriation of the Linnaean name to Alveolus 

 by his predecessors." In a manuscript note in my father's handwriting is 

 " In the Linnsean cabinet are 2 Malva large and 2 Alveolus small put in as 

 4 Malv* 



Haworth, in the old " Entomological Transaction," 1802, records another 

 species, Orleus (The Georgian Grizzle), as being taken in Bedfordshire, by 

 the Rev. Dr. Abbot. Evidently a mistake. 



GENUS XXIV. NISONIADES. 

 Hubner. 



A genus of about fifty species, of which but two occur in Europe, and only 

 one in Britain. They are mostly brown in colour, with ash-coloured undu- 

 lating bars. The males have the costal margin of the fore-wings double, or 



