1888.] 103 



Cerostoma vittella — anterior wings entirely black. Occurs rarely at Birming- 

 ham ; I have never taken any form of C. vittella at Teignmouth. 



Prays Curtisellus — the aberration (rustica) occurs both at Birmingham and 

 Teignmouth. Some years ago there was an ash tree in one of the roads of Edgbaston 

 especially haunted by this insect, and intermediate forms between the type and the 

 dark aberration were frequent, with the head yellow, the anterior wings dark grey, 

 and yet the markings of Curtisellus plainly to be seen. 



G-racilaria syringella — with the fore-wings brownish-fuscous, generally some- 

 what mottled with darker marks. Occurs occasionally at Birmingham, but is 

 unknown at Teignmouth. 



I have taken Agrotis suffusa and Agrotis nigricans with the an- 

 terior wings black at Teignmouth, but both insects are very rare near 

 Birmingham. Cidaria suffumata is of the usual type at Birmingham, 

 as at Teignmouth. Sadena rurea occurs in both places under the two 

 forms of alopecurus and rurea proper. Specimens occasionally occur 

 of male Hibernia defoliaria at Birmingham with the anterior wings 

 unicolorous, of a reddish-brown hue. Many insects are certainly 

 habitually darker near Birmingham than near Teignmouth, but it 

 would require a long and carefully prepared series from each of the 

 localities to speak of this with certainty, yet it is not going too far to 

 say, that it would not be difficult as a rule to separate specimens from 

 the two localities in some cases, as for example, Segetia xantJwgrapha, 

 Soarmia rlwmboidaria, and Salia wavaria. 



The only insects in which darker forms occur in the south of 

 Devon (known to me) are Camptogramma bilineata, in which an aberra- 

 tion of the female with either one or two black transverse bands is 

 found frequently, and Bactra pauperana, which, in the Salt Marshes 

 by the "Warren at Dawlish, has often a dark longitudinal band, or is 

 uniformly dark brown, except the anterior costa. 



It will be noticed that the only case recorded in this list where 

 complete melanism extends to the inferior wings is in A. betularia 

 (which does not completely hide them when in repose), but often the 

 inferior wings are darker than the type. 



105, Harborne Eoad, Edgbaston : 

 September \lth, 1888. 



Lycana Alexis, Kb. — Referring to Mr. C. G\ Barrett's remarks in this Maga- 

 zine (vol. xxv, p. 83), I may say that this year I have taken a number of fine females 

 exquisitively shot with blue, many being almost as blue as the males, in a field 

 bordering Edlington Wood, near Doncaster. The normal form of the female appeared 

 to be very scarce. — A. E. Hall, Norbury, Sheffield : September, 1888. 



