INTERESTING ABERRATION OF EUSTROMA RETICULATA. 59 



to shortly below the middle smooth ; the base of the propleurae with 

 a row of punctm'es rmining from top to bottom. Occiput and cheeks 

 strongly keeled, furrowed on the inner side of the keel, the furrow 

 bearing some strite. Antennaa stout, the third joint about one-fourth 

 shorter than the following two united. Basal half of mandibles rufo- 

 testaceous ; the palpi testaceous. 



AN INTEEE STING ABERRATION OF EUSTROMA 

 RETICULATA (Schiff). 



By Louis B. Prout, F.E.S. 



^^I^B 



Mi 



Eustroma reticulata. 1, normal ; 2, aberration. 



Eustroma reticulata is certainly one of the less variable of our 

 "carpet moths," and the Rev. E. J. Nurse, Rector of Winder- 

 mere, is to be congratulated on having bred, at the end of July 

 last, the striking aberration of which the photograph is repro- 

 duced above. Knowing my interest in the Geometridae, and 

 especially in the variation of the Larentiinae, our Editor has 

 asked me to comment upon it. Really aberrant forms of this 

 species must be exceedingly few and far between, and I have 

 only notes of two. One is the large, dark example with the 

 white lines — or some of them — reduced to a minimum, rather 

 vaguely described by Hodgkinson (Entom. xxiv. 266). The 

 other is in Mr. Sydney Webb's collection (from that of S. Stevens), 

 and is an asymmetrical example, in which the dark colouring of 

 the median area in the right fore wing is concentrated into a 

 large costal blotch, a triangular inner marginal mark, and a 

 slight mark between but distally to these, the rest of the area 

 remaining pale. As will be seen, Mr. Nurse's example belongs 

 to the same "phase of variation," and it is interesting that it 

 is similarly asymmetrical. Almost the only other direction of 

 variation known to me in this species is in the degree of 

 approximation of the two central white lines at the costa. 

 Sometimes these remain widely apart, sometimes they approach 

 or even touch, sometimes they meet before the costa, enclosing a 

 more or less ovate dark blotch (ab. ovidata, Borgmann). 



