7676 Insects. 



Scarcity of Sesia Muscaformis in 1861.— I have taken a trip to look after Scsia 

 Musctefoimis, but the wind and rain prevented uiy obtaining any in good condition, 

 Although 1 worked hard for two or three weeks I only obtained two specimens. — 

 George King ; Union Street, Torquay, July 16, 1861. 



[Mr. Doubleday, with his customary care to obtain the coirect name of every new 

 British Lepidopteron, sent specimens of this species to M. Guenee, who pronounces 

 them to be Sesia Muscjcformis ;of his cabinet, and not S. Philanthiforinis, which he 

 also possesses, and which is a different species. In any list hereafter published by 

 M. Guenee or Mr. Doubleday Mr. King's insect will therefore stand as Sesia Musca;- 

 furmis. I fear I was the author of the original raistiike in naming this insect, having 

 supposed Philanthiforinis and MuscEEforrais to be merely synonyms of the same insect. 

 Mr. Reading in his learned paper (Zool. 7280) has adopted this unfortunate error. — 

 Edward Newman.'] 



Further Note on the Supposed New Irish Zygcena.—Oi course my note in a late 

 number of the,' Zoologist' (Zool. 7565) has produced many communications on the 

 same subject, the most interesting of which are, first, a letter from M. Guenee, addressed 

 to Mr. Doubleday, and, secondly, a visit from Mr. Birchall. From M. Gueuee's letter 

 it appears manifest that that greatest of Lepidopterists considers that the two Irish 

 Zygcense are distinct as species ; the one which we have so long known by the name 

 of Minos, and which is particularly distinguished by its black woolly or hairy body, 

 he believes to be undesciibed ; and the comparatively recent addition to our fauna, 

 which I announced in the June number, he regards as the true Zyuaena Minos. This 

 view of the case is corroborated by a most careful comparison of a pair of continental 

 specimens of Zygsena Minos, sent over by Herrich-Schaeffer, with the insects taken in 

 Ireland, and one of which I had supposed lo be Z. Achillea?. The continental speci- 

 mens have been kindly presented to the cabinet of the Entomological Club by Mr.' 

 Birchall, and have been placed side by side with others of his own taking. A pair of 

 continental Zygimae, presented by Mr. Doubleday to Mr. Birchall, were at the same 

 time submitted to a like critical examination, with the result that one of them was 

 certainly identical both with Hervich-Scha'ffer's Z.Minos and with Mr. Birchall's new 

 Irish insect; the second specimen, however, seemed lo differ, being a much more 

 opaque insect, somewhat larger, irrorated with testaceous scales, and having a whitish 

 or grayish tuft on each side of the mesothorax at the base of the fore wings, extending 

 on lo the wing itself. Ihese differences at first induced both Mr. Birchall and myself 

 to think that the two specimens in question were referrible to different species, the one 

 probably being the true Z. Minos, the other the true Z. Achilleoe, but even this con- 

 clusion appears doubtful, since we found the testaceous scales often present in the 

 Irish specimens, and in a few instances the gray tuft at the base of the fore wings is 

 also very distinctly present. Under these circumstances it seems best to eliminate the 

 name of L. Achillese from the discussion, and to confine our attention to the two species, 

 or supposed species, which I endeavoured to differentiate at page 7565. Let us call 

 the most familiar black-bodied insect Zygaena nubigena, thus adopting a cabinet name 

 used both in France and Germany, and one which M. Guenee proposes to adopt should 

 he ever describe this tribe of insects. And let us inquire huw it came to be called 

 Z. Minos in England, and in England only. The first notice of the insect is from my own 

 pen, and runs thus : — " I am informed by my friend Mr. Thomas H. Allis that about a 

 dozen specimens of Zyga;na Minos were taken last summer on the west coast of Ire- 

 laud by Henry Milnor, Esq., of Nuuupplcton, near York.'' — Zool. 41^0, dated January, 



