RECURKENT PHASES OF VARIATION IN LARENTIID^. 153 



(scotica, Stgr.), is sometimes intensely black. Xanthorlioe, 

 Epirrhoe, &c. {Melanippe, Dup. et Gn., nom. praeocc.*), furnish 

 several interesting examples, especially as we get towards the 

 north and east of their range — I imagine we must place North 

 America to the northward from this point of view, as the con- 

 nection seems to lie between Icelandic forms and those of 

 Labrador, &c. ; though I believe some run a long way south 

 in the Eocky Mountains. Thus there are X. fluctuata var. nea- 

 polisata, frequent in Scotland, and the more extreme var. thules 

 in Shetland ; E. alternata, Miill. = sociata, Bkh., darkened in the 

 Hebrides (var. obscurata, South) ; Melanthia procellata, almost 

 melanic in Japan (var. inquinata, Butl.) ; E. hastata and E. liic- 

 tiiata, Schiff. {liiguhrata, Stgr.), often extremely black in Labrador 

 and the Kockies, &c. (var. gotldcata, Gn., and var. ohductata, 

 Moesch,, respectively; Petersen, Lep. Estl. 131, has recently 

 added a " var. horealis " to the latter, occurring in Esthonia and 

 in Northern Finland, and making a transition to the var. oh- 

 ductata). E. hastata is also darkened in Iceland, producing the 

 curious "Darwinian species," thidearia. In Guenee's incongruous 

 genus " Melanthia,'' f melanism is well known in our interesting 

 Scotch forms of M. hicolorata, and has even occurred in such an 

 unlikely species as M. albicillata (ab. suffusa, Carrington). In 

 Perizoma, Hb. (Emmelesia) , it crops up in a very marked form 

 in the Shetland var. thides of P. albidata; in Oporabia, in all the 

 species; in Venusia, in the type-species cambrica. In " Cidaria,'" 

 as used by our British writers, there are several interesting 

 examples, such as C. suffamata ab. piceata, C. truncata and C. im- 

 inanata, C. popidata ab. musauaria, C. testata var. insidicola, 

 Stgr. — our Shetland form. Lastly, I must not omit to mention 

 the wonderful Irish forms of Camptogramma bilincata dealt with 

 by Mr. Kane {ride Irish Nat. v. 74-80, 1896 ; Entora. xxxi. 85, 

 1898), and unaccountably overlooked in Staudinger's 'Catalog.' 

 These are ab. hibernica, mihi,! =infascata, Kane nee Gmppbg., 

 with almost unicolorous fuscous-brown fore wings, and the still 

 more extreme var. isolata, Kane, with all the wings sooty black. 

 The next phase of typical variation to be considered in the 

 family is the narrowing of the central area. This is, I suppose, 

 liable to occur in any species which has the wings divided by 



='' I have endeavoured to use chiefly generic names familiar to Britisli 

 readers, but I cannot bring myself to perpetuate error by maintaining a 

 homonym, against all canons of zoological nomenclature. 



f Guenee's Melanthia does not even retain the type of Duponchel's genus 

 of that name, which the author himself fixed as 'proccllata ; as iirocellata 

 seems to be siii generis {cfr. Tijd. Ent. xxxii. 207), it ought to be known as 

 Melanthia lyrocellata, not as Plemyria, Hb., as proposed by Snellen ; the 

 type of Plemyria is hicolorata, Hfn. (not "Hb."), as stated by Hulst. 



I The "Geometrides" in Mr. Tutt's valuable " List of Species, Varieties, 

 and Aberrations of Lepidoptera, so far only recorded from British Localities " 

 were written up entirely by me {i. e. Ent. Rec. xiv. 202-204), although not so 

 indicated. 



