AMBLYPTILIA COSMODACTYLA, HB. 39 



struck by the resemblance of the tails to outstretched antennae at 

 night time. 



These suggestions are, I feel, made on altogether insufficient data, 

 and it is only the despair of ever being able to get enough reliable 

 ones, that makes me feel justified in throwing them out. 



In addition to my experiences with the beetles, it may be of interest 

 to record that I have observed both spiders and larvae of ladybirds (the 

 latter probably only because Aphides had failed them) attack and kill 

 young larvae of Papilio machaon. The spiders w^ould even attack almost 

 fullgrown larvffi, which soon died and turned black after being bitten. 

 About ninety per cent, of the ova laid on fennel by my Papilio asteriaa 

 last season were sucked and destroyed by a small Hemipteron, which 

 I have, up to the present, been unable to identify. This insect, which 

 was only too common in my butterfly-house last summer, seemed to 

 spend its days flying from bush to bush and plant to plant in search 

 of the ova of butterflies. When it discovered one, it proceeded to 

 insert its beak, and, having sucked the ovum dry in a very short space 

 of time, flew or crawled on to the next. Some large plants of carrot 

 were covered with the prismatic white eggshells, whose living contents 

 it had devoured. 



Amblyptilia cosmodactyla, Hb. (acanthodactyla, Tr.), ab. nivea^ 



nov. ab. 



By EUSTACE E. BANKES, M.A.,'F.E.S. 



Head and thorax whitish, dusted with fuscous. Foreinm/s white, 

 dusted with brown tow^ards the costa ; the clearly-defined antemedian 

 costal spot, postmedian costal blotch, and subterminal bar crossing 

 the lobes, with the terminal portion of the lower lobe, brownish- 

 black ; terminal cilia blackish, chequered with white. Hind wings 

 brownish -black, with the dorsal margin of the third feather whitish ; 

 cilia browmish, partially dark-spotted. Scale-teeth of all the cilia 

 blackish. Abdomen dorsally and ventrally white, dusted with fuscous, 

 laterally blackish. Legs white, broadly barred with brownish-black. 



The above description of this most striking and beautiful aberra- 

 tion was recently made from two British examples ( ^ and 5 ) in Mr, 

 W. H. B. Fletcher's collection. They were taken, either as imagines 

 or larvfe, by Mr. W. Salvage several years ago, probaby in Sutherland- 

 shire, though this is uncertain. If other lepidopterists secured 

 examples of this albinic aberration from Mr. Salvage, perhaps they 

 will kindly make knowm the data received from him, for there seems 

 little doubt that he only met with it in one locality, where it occurred 

 rarely during a single season. These two specimens are the only 

 ones I have seen. To prevent confusion, it seems advisable to add 

 that the name A. cosmodactyla is used above for the common reddish- 

 brown species, popularly known in Britain as^. acanthodactijla, and not 

 for the rare olive-brown insect generally known as A. punctidactyla or 

 A. cosmodactyla. In Knt. Piecord, xi., 238 (1899), Mr. Tutt showed that 

 the former is the true cosmodactyla, Hb., while the latter is really 

 acanthodactyla, Hb., but in the Catalog by Staudinger and Kebel 

 (1901), although the reference to his note is given, the erroneous use 

 of Hiibner's names is maintained. 



