SOME ABERRATIONS OF BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 2§ 



usual eye-spot near the apical angle is distinct and well-marked, 

 and just below it is a smaller spot which shows a tendency to 

 coalesce ; while nearer the apex is the small spot which is 

 frequently met with in normal specimens. A fourth well-defined 

 spot lies below the two coalesced spots, and below this lies a dot, 

 which does not show in the photograph. On the under side the 

 four above-mentioned eye-marks are present, while the hind 

 wings present quite a normal appearance both on the upper and 

 under sides. It may be interesting to note that in the allied 

 Continental species, S. mcera, the eye-spot on the fore wings has 

 generally two white pupils. 



Tutt ('British Butterflies,' p. 393) mentions another aberra- 

 tion, as follows : " On the hind wings there are usually four 

 ocellated spots, sometimes, however, only three, but in one 

 female specimen that we have the spot nearest the anal angle 

 is double, and there are two small spots in the upper fulvous 

 patches of the series, making a total of seven." 



D. P. Betts. 

 13, First Avenue, Hoe Street, Walthamstow. 



PLUSIA MONET A. 

 (Plate IV., figs. 1, 2, aberration ; fig. 3, typical.) 



Aberrations of P. moneta are so extremely rare that it may 

 be well to figure those of which I enclose photographs in the 

 ' Entomologist.' As will be seen, there is a general darkening of 

 the ground colour compared with that of typical specimens, but 

 the striking feature of the aberration is the very remarkable 

 wedge-shaped black spots in the marginal area. 



These specimens were two of twenty-six reared from larva? 

 collected in a garden at Boxmoor, Herts, this year, and they 

 emerged within twenty-four hours of one another. 



Mr. Prout tells me that, as far as he knows, this form of 

 aberration has not been known before. 



G. H. Heath. 

 277, Brockley Road, S.E. 



VENILIA MAC U LATA. 



(Plate IV., fig. 5.) 



I send you herewith a photograph of a remarkable aberra- 

 tion of Venilia maculata. I caught the moth in Pamber Forest, 

 near Pleading, on June 1st, 1905, but the opportunity of having 

 it well photographed did not occur till I was fortunate enough 

 to meet Mr. H. Main down here this summer. Mr. Main, with 

 great courtesy and kindness, expended his well-known skill in 

 taking the photograph which is here reproduced. 



