THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



be illogically applied than that complicating exceptions should 

 be allowed into a simple system ; and in any case ochrata, Scop. 

 (Stephens' choice — Curtis' is tiltra vires, for aversata was placed 

 in Idcsa, Tr.), which would have to be accepted under the Code, 

 would no better fulfil the evident original intention of Schiffer- 

 miiller and Treitschke than does strigaria. Therefore, I accept 

 strigaria, Hiib., as the type of Acidalia, Tr., Dup. restr. Perhaps 

 it is a just retribution on Treitschke for creating such a " mixed 

 genus," and it saves the name of Operophtera, Hiib., for hrumata. 

 I showed in 'The Entomologist' for 1906 (xxxix. 266) 

 that on every conceivable ground then known to me ornata, 

 Scop., was the type of Schrank's genus Scopula ; and as I believe 

 no one had ever previously " selected a type" from Schrank's 

 two species, I claim that this action can stand, in spite of the 

 indifference of the Code to generic diagnosis. The genus, if we 

 give it Hampson's scope, will be Scopida = Acidalia = Arrhostia 

 =. Lcptomeris = Craspedia = Emmiltis = Dosithea ; but as it is 

 possible to make a separate genus, on wing form, for the ornata 

 group, I would suggest that believers in small genera subdivide 

 thus : — 



A. Scopula, Schrank = Craspedia, Hb. = Dosithea, Dup. (type, 

 ornata, Scop.). Hind wing with margin more or less scolloped, 

 especially between vein 4 and 6. 



B. Acidalia, Tr. = Arrhostia (Hb.), H.-S. = Leptomeris (Hb.), 

 Meyr. = Emmiltis (Hb.)Warr., (type, virgulata, Schiff. = strigaria, 

 Hb.). Hind wing with margin not scolloped. 



Sterrha, Hb., and Ptychopoda, Stph., abide unmoved amidst 

 all these changes. 

 December 9th, 1908. 



THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELIT^EA. 

 By George Wheeler, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Continued from vol. xli. p. 307.) 



Before entering upon the general question of variation, and 

 especially upon the original descriptions of the named varieties, 

 there is one of the latter which seems to me to merit special 

 attention on the ground that it is almost certainly a distinct 

 species, viz. the Bukowina form generally knoM'n as aurelia var. 

 dictynndides, Horm. This form is described very completely and 

 at great length in 'Iris,' x., pp. 2 et seq. (1898). Finding that no 

 specimen at my disposal really corresponded with this description, 

 particularly in the matter of the remarkably elongated wings, on 

 which great stress is laid in the description, I wrote to Herr von 

 Hormuzaki, who courteously replied, sending me a pair taken on 

 Mt. Cecina, near Czernowitz, the same locality from which the 



