I HYPOLIMNAS MISIPPUS CAPTURED IT SEA, 315 



calling the calthella group Micropteryx, but afterwards changed it to 

 Eriocephala. The general erroneous use of these terms has since been 

 in the direction here indicated. Lord Walsingham and others, 

 however, have in their recent work made the necessary correction. 



The facts, so far as we have discussed them in The Natural History 

 of the British Lejndoptera, vol. ii., give the following conclusions : 



Superfamily .. MICEOPTERYGIDES. 



Family . . Miceopteeygidae, 



Genus . . Micropterix [Micropteryx), Hb., " Verz. bek. Schm.," 426 



(1826) [Type: M. calthella]. 

 Species . . calthella, L., seppella, Fab. (included by Hiibner). 



The British species of the genus are — calthella, L., seppella, Fab., arun- 

 cella, Scop., mansuetella, Scop., thnnhergella, Fab., aareatella, Scop. 

 Superfamily .. EEIOCEANIIDES. 



Family . . EEiocEANnDAE. 



Genus .. Eriocrania, Zell., "Linn. Ent.," v., 322-3 (1851) [Type: 



E. purpurella] . 

 Species . . Sparrmanella, Bosc, fastuosella, Zell., siibpurpurella, Haw., 



clirysolepiclella, Zeller, semipurpurella, St., purjmrella, 



Haw. 



The British species of the genus oxQ—purpurella, Haw., semipurpurella, 

 St., unimaculella, Zett., sparrmanella, Bosc, suhpurpurella, Haw., 

 fastuosella, Zell., sangii. Wood, fimbriata, Walsm., &c. Snellen, in 

 the Jlind. Ned. Micr., 1063-4, 1067 (1882) omits chrysolepidella, 

 which, Durrant says, thus ceases to be an available type. 

 The generic synonymy, therefore, works out as follows : 



1. Microi?tenjx, B.h., "Verz. bek. Schmett.," 426(1826); Stephs., "111. Br. 



Ent. Haust.," iv., (361) 423 (1835) ; Kirby, " Lloyd's Nat. Hist.," Lep., v., 

 p. 315. Eriocephala, Curt., "Br. Ent.," expl. pi. 751 (1839). 



2. Eriocrania, Zell., "Linn. Ent.," v., 322-3 (1851). Micropteryx [Eriocrania), 



Snellen, " Vlind. Ned. Micr.," 1063-4,1067(1882). Micropteryx, Hein., 

 Meyr., &c. 



The immense strides that have recently been made in general 

 entomological knowledge by the great majority of our lepidopterists, 

 who would have been contemptuously styled " collectors " a few years 

 ago, by the old school of systematists, leave me with less compunction 

 in discussing this matter in a short article. We all understand now 

 that the nomenclature relating to genera must of necessity be in a 

 state of fiux as knowledge advances, and that, however inconvenient 

 changes may be, a fixity of generic nomenclature would of necessity 

 represent a condition of stagnation in our onward march, a condition 

 that we should all certainly most seriously deplore. 



Hypolimnas misippus captured at sea. 



By Professor EDWARD B. POULTON, M.A., F.E.S., F.Z.S., &e. 



Eef erring to the notes on this species in vol. xi., p. 322, and vol. 

 xii., p. 80, of The Entomologist's Eecord, I am now, owing to the kind- 

 ness of Captain E. P. Ellis, able to supply a full account of the 

 circumstances under which he made the interesting capture of three 

 females (two of the variety inaria) and two males, over 500 miles from 

 land. The notes sent me by Captain Ellis were made by him on 

 the sailing ship Winefred on a voyage from Australia, and are as 

 follows : — 



" May 5th, 1893. In 00° 36' N. lat. and 26° 42' W. long., a swarm of butter- 

 flies about the ship ; they appear to be all of one kind." 



