CAPTUKBS AND FIELD REPORTS. 113 



it was : — we adjourned to the Crown Hotel, Arnside, which, after a 

 good feed, we left again, and returned, with the sun shining once more, 

 to our hunting-ground on the kuott. Another visit, on the 16th, 

 turned out to be on a cool, showery day, with north-west winds. I saw 

 a few blandina and T. guercus, but the season was about over for the 

 butterflies. Off tree-trunks I picked a worn and unrecognizable 

 Eupithecia, an equally worn Scoparla, and, off a fern, a fine example 

 of Tortrix forskaleana in which tbe median fuscous blotch (upper 

 wings) is much more developed than in our Chester specimens. On 

 this occasion I again took larvae (three) of G. asteris from golden-rod. 



In the immediate vicinity of Lancaster I noticed the following 

 motbs: — Bryophila perla, Polia chi (at rest on stone walls), and, on 

 tree-trunks, tbe pale form of Cidaria truncata-russata, that is, with 

 the central portion of the upper wings white — tbe true russata, I 

 believe. When I got home, on August 22nd, I found the smoke- 

 coloured form of the moth about Chester (perfuscata), and, at 

 Delamere, the form immanata, that is, with the central and basal 

 portions of the wing black-brown and the intervening transverse band 

 distinctly brown. All tbese and subsequent forms I look upon as the 

 same species, differing only as to times of appearance [perfuscata, for 

 example, appears twice in the season at Chester), difference in 

 coloration and situations. To continue the list of "forms" I adopt 

 for cabinet purposes I would cite comma-notata, with the upper wings 

 centrally suffused with russet, and marmorata (brown markings only, 

 on a whitish-grey ground), the latter leading closely up, in general 

 appearance, to Cidaria sujjumata. Before leaving my list of insects 

 for the Lancaster district, I ought to mention a handsome form, 

 hitherto entirely unheard of by me, of Gonopteryx rhamni, which that 

 veteran entomologist, Mr. G. Loxham, showed me — a male with the tips 

 of the upper wings broadly and clearly marked off with orange-scarlet. 

 Mr. Loxham informed me this was a very local race of the butterfly, 

 and that all tbe specimens captured in the locality were not always so 

 definitely orange-tipped. Here I would express my warmest thanks 

 to Mr. Loxham and to Mr. C. H. Forsythe for the kindness and help 

 they extended to me while at Lancaster. Among the many favours 

 received at the hands of Mr. Forsythe was a good look at his fine 

 collection. 



But my chief points of interest at Lancaster were, first, what was 

 the form, tbere, of Aplecta nebulosa? and, secondly, the forms of 

 Boarmia repandata and B. rhomboidaria ? I found that a longitudinal 

 line for the three species, drawn from South Wales, through Chester, 

 on to Lancaster, and continued northwards, crossed the melanic 

 centre in Cbeshire, that north and south of Cheshire the moths 

 became paler. Progressive melanism in these species appears to 

 extend from this centre eastwardly. The same remarks apply to 

 A. betal aria, black forms of which have been taken near Berlin, only 

 that this melanic direction now occupies a band, or zone, which, in 

 the case of A. betulana, appears to have covered the greater part 

 of Britain within the last fifty years. 



In conclusion, I may refer to the abnormally hot weather of 1906 

 from August 22nd till the end of the first week in September, con- 



ENTOM. MAY, 1907- L 



