NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 15 



one example was taken by Hornemann at Hammerfest, and 

 W. M. Schoyen found one at Karasjok, July 30th, 1879, and 

 some more at Kistrand during the first week in August the 

 same year ; these latter, four in number, and the Karasjok 

 specimen, I saw in the National Collection at Christiania in 

 June last. 



Herr Sparre Schneider writes that it is the only butterfly 

 occurring in Arctic Norway that he has not taken. 



Herr Bye informed me that between twenty and thirty years 

 ago he, with another inhabitant of the Porsanger Fjord, took 

 specimens not infrequently at Kistrand and Laxelv, which were 

 sent to Germany. I have also seen it stated somewhere that speci- 

 mens have been found in the Kola Peninsula, Russian Lapland. 



I recently wrote to Staudinger for an example of the European 

 form, which is distinct from those occurring elsewhere, but was 

 informed by him that it could not be supplied, and that speci- 

 mens coming into the market in old collections were invariably 

 the American form. 



Seitz says that the butterfly flies only at noon, with prefer- 

 ence at the foot of rocks which are well warmed by the sun, 

 becoming at once lethargic when struck by the cold wind. The 

 form of this species, known as var. boisduvalii, is widely distri- 

 buted in Arctic America, and var. arctica from Greenland and 

 Nova Zembla perhaps extends the farthest north of all butterflies. 

 Youlgreave, South Croydon : October 12th, 1912. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



The New Department of Entomology at the Natural His- 

 tory Museum. — The Principal Trustees of the British Museum have 

 appointed Mr. Charles Joseph Gahan, M.A., First Class Assistant in 

 the Department of Zoology, to the newly created post of Keeper of 

 the Department of Entomology. Hitherto, for administrative pur- 

 poses, there has been an Entomological Section of the Department 

 of Zoology ; in future there will be a special Department of Ento- 

 mology under its own Keeper. Mr. Gahan will take up his new 

 duties at the beginning of the next financial year. — 'The Times,' 

 December 12th, 1912. 



The Noctuid Genus Alysia. — The New Zealand' genus A lysia 

 has been revived by Warren, apparently with good reason, but un- 

 fortunately Alysia, Guen., 1868, is a homonym of Alysia, Latr., 1804, 

 a well-known genus of Hymenoptera. The lepidopterous genus may 

 be known as Alysina, n. n. ; type Alysina nullifera (Agrotis nullifera, 

 Walker, Alysia specifica, Guen.). Setagrotis and Maoria, Warren 

 (Seitz, ' Macrolepidoptera, Fauna Indoaustralica '), are also pre- 

 occupied names, and must be changed. For a discussion of the 

 genera related to Alysina, see J. B. Smith, Jn. N. Y. Ent. Soc. 1907, 

 p. 156. — T. D. A. Cockerell ; Boulder, Colorado. 



