^OF^BR 



NOTES ON LEUCANIA FAVIOOLOBC'^' "■■ "• 63 



men alone had been sent for identification, I should have 

 returned it as favicolor. 



Meditating on the significance of the above facts, a doubt 

 arises as to the exact status of favicolor. Is it a species, or a 

 salt-marsh development of L. pallens ? The evidence afforded 

 by Mr. Waller's material certainly seems to indicate that favi- 

 color cannot be a species, except perhaps in the Darwinian 

 sense. In any case, the insect is of very great interest, because, 

 so far as we know, it is a purely British production. 



The earliest recorded specimens of favicolor (one male, three 

 females) were taken, among other Leucanid moths, by Pay- 

 master-in-Chief G. F. Mathew, " on the coast of Suffolk and 

 Essex," in the summer of 1895. Seven other specimens were 

 secured by Mr. Mathew in 1896 (June 23rd to July 3rd). Six 

 years later he captured five males, and saw a female, which flew 

 off the sugar when he tried to box it. In recording the latter 

 specimens he states that favicolor "is easily recognized, as it sits 

 with its wings raised, whereas pallens closes them tight, and is 

 much more quiet " (Ent. Mo. Mag. xxxviii. 220). At Harwich, 

 in June, 1903, Mr. Mathew obtained a fine series, which was 

 submitted to the late Mr. C. G. Barrett, who wrote (Ent. Mo. 

 Mag. xl. 61) : — " These specimens give me a far more extended 

 idea of this pretty species and its variation than we previously 

 possessed. From the soft, smooth, honey colour of the typical 

 form these show the fore wings tinged with red-drab in a less or 

 greater degree, till a deep red, almost a coppery-red, is reached, 

 with a gloss and smoothness very different from the dull and 

 plain appearance of the allied species, and decidedly so from the 

 more pinkish red appearance of some forms of L. pallens, in 

 which also are always closely placed lines all over the fore wings. 

 Moreover, these L. favicolor maintain the greater breadth of the 

 fore wings, and the decidedly more robust habit of the body. 

 Still more interesting than these red specimens are two or three 

 in which the fore wings are of a distinctly light yellow,* almost 

 the colour of L. vitellina." 



If at any time favicolor was restricted to the Harwich and 

 Felixstowe districts it would seem to have extended its range 

 since 1903. Mr. Waller, then living at Henley Kectory, Wood- 

 bridge, secured a specimen of ab. rufa, Tutt, that was attracted 

 by light into his room in September, 1904 ; and in the following 

 year he captured four specimens, three of which (one lutea and 

 two riifa) came to sugared flowers of dock in July. 



In 1906, Lieutenant Jacobs recorded red and yellow forms 

 from the salt-marshes near Queenborough, Isle of Sheppey. In 

 1908 favicolor was taken at Benfleet, Essex, and a specimen 

 " near ab. Zuiea " in East Sussex. At a meeting of the South 

 London Entomological and Natural History Society, November 



* Ab. lutea, Tutt.— E. S. 



