66 .March, 



based upon the capture at Folkestone of specimens which, by reason of the richness 

 of their colouring, and more particularly tlie fuller red-brown colour of the costa 

 than in the ordinary form, suggested a probable novelty. These specimens were 

 ascertained by Mr. H. Doubleday and Dr. Knaggs to be genuine interjectaria, Bdv., 

 and were so recorded in the Entomologist's Annual for 1868, as well as in tliis 

 Magazine. It was also then stated by Mr. Doubleday that we possessed both species 

 — osseata and interjectaria — but before long it began to be recognised that the sup- 

 posed distinctions in our native forms were unreliable, that the rather slight distinc- 

 tions in colour did not present specific differences, that the shape and markings were 

 identical, and that the other differences were fully bridged over by intermediate varia- 

 tion. Then came a time when it was important from a financial point of view that 

 British osseata should be obtained, and accordingly specimens differing in no respect 

 from those found upon the continent — having more pointed wings, strigse more oblique, 

 and the costa of quite a different red — were readily obtainable by those who were 

 willing to pay a good price ; and for a time these were believed to be genuine natives. 

 Cause for doubt, however, arose, and in 1872 Mr. Doubleday wrote to me as follows : 

 " I do not believe that the beautiful specimens of the true osseata, which * * 

 brought here, and said were captured by * * were Bi-itish. I looked at them 

 with a lens, and believe that they had all been reset." And later he wrote that 

 they were " gross impostures." This opinion became general, and the name osseata, 

 disappeared from our cabinets and lists. Some few years later it was ascertained 

 from Professor Zeller that our interjectaria were certainly dilutaria, Hiib., and this 

 name they still retain. He also forwarded genuine osseata, Hiib., thereby confirming 

 the distinctness of that species from anything then known as British. 



In the past two years, 1891 — 2, however, specimens were taken in the Isle of 

 Wight by Mr. A. J. Hodges, which I have recently had the pleasure of examining, 

 and which are undoubtedly genuine osseata, Hiib. Their fore-wings are narrower, 

 and more pointed at the apex than those of dilutaria, the delicate undulating lines 

 with which both are adorned are, in osseata, more oblique, and the colour of the 

 costal region is quite different, being of a rather fiery red. In all these respects 

 they agree accurately with continental examples of osseata, but are not more than 

 from one-half to two-thirds the size of the latter ; by which it appears probable 

 that at the extreme south of these Islands the species has reached the extreme limit 

 of its range, and maintains itself with difiiculty. Of the genuineness of the present 

 specimens there is no doubt. Their occurrence has already been announced by Mr. 

 Hodges in the " Entomologists' Eecord." In Staudinger's list the species is called 

 humiliata, Hiifnagel.— Chas. Gt. Barebtt, 39, Linden Grove, Nunhead, S.E, : 

 February 17th, 1893. 



If ate on Abraxas ulmata. — In reference to the communication from Mr. Gardner 

 in the December number of the Ent. Mo. Mag. on the occurrence of the larva of the 

 above species on beech, and on the rarity of such a food-plant, the following facts 

 may be interesting. At the end of May last I found ulmata imagines in absolute 

 profusion in the Beechwoods here, resting on the leaves of the undergrowth. In an 

 hour or two one could have collected hundreds. Then in October last I found the 

 larva of ulmata in the same profusion in the same Beechwoods. They were crawling 

 on the trunks, at rest on the leaves, hanging from the twigs^ and marching on the 



