14! [January, 



BLABOPRANHS HERINGI AT PORTLAND: DISTINCT FROM 

 JB. FERRUGINELLAl. 



BY N. M. RICHABDSON, B.A., F.E.S. 



When looking through the cabinet of my late lamented friend, 

 Mr. Stainton, a year or two ago, I saw a short series (I think four 

 specimens) of a BlahopJianes, placed next to JB.ferrugiveJla, Hb., and 

 labelled Heringi, with a query as to their being a distinct species, and 

 on asking him about them, he professed himself unable to give a 

 decided opinion as to whether they were so or not. 



The form oi ferruginella that we take at Portland is very close to 

 these specimens, and differs somewhat from the ferruginella which 

 occurs about London and elsewhere, so far as I have seen it, so that 

 if Heringi is entitled to specific rank, our Portland form sbould share 

 the distinction. It has the fore-wing apparently broader towards the 

 apex, but this arises from the fact that in the Portland specimens the 

 anal angle of the fringe is pale ochreous, whereas in the ferruginella 

 I have it is dark, which makes this part more striking to the eye when 

 the moth is in a cabinet drawer, but if both forms are held up to the 

 light, the difference in this respect is not so conspicuous, and as regards 

 the wing itself, leaving out the fringes, I think that ferricginella is, if 

 anything, narrower than the other. In this I am confirmed by Mr. 

 Stainton, who, in a letter to me of December 19th, 1891, says,-^s 

 follows : — '■ Tour Tortltind ferrugineUn do, indeed, seem to approximate 

 to Heringi, in having broader anterior wings, and in well-marked spe- 

 cimens a subapical dark spot on the costa, of which, in ordinary 

 ferruginella, I see no trace. Whether, Heringi is really a good species 

 is a point on which I am still rather doubtful." 



In the ferruginella which I have, I do not, as Mr. Stainton says, 

 trace any dark subapical spot, but they are so dark altogether, that it 

 appears to me that it might be merged in the general colour of the 

 wing. Portland specimens are not nearly so handsome a.^ ferruginella, 

 and have by the side of them a somewhat washy appearance, looking 

 rather as if they might be bad specimens of the latter species which 

 had migrated there in a body for their health, but, under a magnifying 

 power sufficient to show the separate scales distinctly, this appearance 

 is seen to be due to the sprinkling over the face of the wing of a 

 number of pale ochreous scales, the dark scales being also rather 

 lighter than those oi ferruginella. The inner marginal area is rather 

 paler than m ferruginella , and as has been above mentioned, the fringes 

 are pale ochreous, with a few dark scales at the apex, and a few here 

 and there extending ovAj as far as the middle of the fringe, which 



