THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XL.] FEBRUARY, 1907. [No. 525. 



ARE HYPS A BAUMANNIANA AND H. CONSPICUA 

 VARIETIES OF H. SUBRETRACTA? 



By H. von Felser Berensberg. 



(Office of the Government Entomologist, Pietermaritzburg, Natal.) 

 (Plate I.) 



During the summer of 1903 I found a number of caterpillars, 

 then quite unknown to me, feeding upon the leaves of a culti- 

 vated fig-tree in my garden in Pietermaritzburg. I collected 

 them all — a batch of about twenty — from the one tree, and at 

 the time had no doubt in my mind that not only were all the 

 caterpillars identical, but also, from their even size, of the one 

 brood. There were many other fig-trees growing in the garden 

 close by, but there were no caterpillars on these trees, neither 

 then nor later in the season. 



Being then in the service of the Railway Construction 

 Department and frequently away from home, I was unable to 

 make any notes upon the larval stage, which was seen through 

 by my wife, who fed the insects daily upon fresh fig-leaves. 



The adults emerged satisfactorily and evenly, the majority being 

 typical Hypsa subretracta. There were, however, two well-defined 

 varieties, represented by a male insect and two similar females. 



Quite recently, in revising my collection of moths, I found in 

 the Durban Museum the genus represented by three species, H. 

 subretracta Wlk., M. conspicua Swinh., and H. baumanniana 

 Karsch., the determinations having been made by Sir. G. F. 

 Hampson, from Natal specimens sent to him by Mr. Quekett. 

 Concerning these I may say that H. conspicua is identical with 

 my variety of H. subretracta represented by two females, whilst 

 H. baumanniana is almost, though not quite, similar to my 

 unique variety (a male).* 



* The two specimens of baumanniana in the Durban Museum are 

 males, and both specimens of conspicua are females, analogous to the speci- 

 mens in my collection. In these two cases the males incline to the darker 



ENTOM. — FEBRUARY, 1907. D 



