January, 1889.] 109 



CRRYSOCLISTA BIMACULELLA; ITS VARIABILITY IN 

 MAKKINGS AND SIZE. 



BY H. T. STAINTOJS", F.R.S. 



In reply to my appeal (ante, p. 91) for British specimens of this 

 insect for comparison inter se and with the Vienna specimens, I 

 am happy to say that through the kindness of my friends I have now 

 a sufficient number of British specimens before me, and ought to be 

 able to come to a definite decision. 



The Vienna specimens are always larger than the British specimens, 

 expanding 7 — 1\ lines, whereas the largest British specimen is only 

 6 lines in expanse, and that happens to be an unusually large specimen ; 

 but size alone scarcely affords a good specific character. In the Vienna 

 specimens the orange blotch near the base, and that beyond the middle 

 of the wing, are confluent, there being sufficient space between the 

 first dorsal spot and the costal spot for a streak of the orange ground- 

 colour to run through. 



This does not happen in any British specimen I have yet seen, 

 nor does it happen in a Zellerian specimen from GTlogau, kindly lent 

 by Lord "Walsingham ; yet this specimen is considered by Lord 

 "Walsingham and by myself as a form of the Vienna bimaculella, and, 

 if we are correct in so doing, the confluence or non-confluence of the 

 two orange blotches cannot indicate a specific character. 



I will now briefly describe the Vienna form of Chrysoclista 

 bimaculella, of which I have eight specimens before me : — 



Expansion of the wings 7 — 7i lines. Head and face black ; palpi grey. 

 Antennae black, with the tips wbite. Anterior- wings bright reddish-orange, with 

 black margins ; the costa broadly black to the middle, then narrowly black to 

 considerably beyond the middle, where it is interrupted by the orange ground-colour 

 (a little paler just there) ; the inner-margin has just a narrow black edging ; the 

 hind-margin broadly black. There are three silvery-violet spots, each with a black 

 centre, two of them near the inner-margin, and one near the costa, this latter is placed 

 nearer to the first inner-marginal spot than to the second ; near the base just below 

 the costa is a short silvery-violet streak, and a similar streak lies on the black portion 

 of the costa beyond the middle ; in three specimens I see, in addition to the above- 

 mentioned markings, a silvery-violet streak at the base of the cilia, from the anal 

 angle' towards the apex; cilia blackish. Posterior-wings brownish, with blackish- 

 brown cilia. 



The British specimens I have before me are seven in number. I 

 will indicate them by the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and will note them in 

 the order in which they reached me : — 

 a, from Lord Walsingham (labelled " Leith Hill, Mr. Harper's 



collection"). Possibly this is the specimen noticed in the Ent. 



Annual, 1857, p. 128, as captured "by Mr. E. 0. Standish, on 



Leith Hill, amongst sallow." 



