8S ' April, 



Our British Butalidce : an appeal for help. — The genus Butalis, which is par- 

 ticularly well represented in this part of the country, has always interested me 

 greatly, but my investigations have shown that there is an immense and distressing 

 amount of confusion and error existing everywhere, both in our standard works as 

 well as in collections, about one or two of the species included in the British list. 

 This (with the editors' kind permission) I hope to be able to clear away before very 

 long, but it is an extremely difficult matter, and although I have studied the question 

 pretty closely, the deeper one goes into it the more involved does it become, and the 

 more deeply-seated is the mischief seen to be ; but it is quite unnecessary to enter 

 into the details or the causes of it at present. It will be sufficient to mention that, 

 thanks to the kindness of several friends, I have been able to consult all the works, 

 both English and foreign, in which the species are described, figured or noticed, and 

 also to examine the splendid collections of the late Mr. H. T. Stainton and Professor 

 Zeller, as well as those of Messrs. P. B. Mason, J. W. Douglas. W. H. B. Fletcher, 

 and others. Just now, however, I am most anxious to see for myself Haworth's 

 original type specimens oi fusco-cenea smd fu-ico-cuprea, and shall be very grateful 

 to any one who can tell me where they are to be found, as my own efforts to trace 

 them since the disposal of his insects at a sale many years ago have so far been 

 in vain. 



It would be a great help if any one could, in the coming season or at any future 

 time, kindly supply me with larvae oi fnsco-anea, or of any species that seems ready 

 to answer to the n&me fusco-cuprea (!), while larvae or imagines of a most beautiful 

 copper coloured insect, which represents the latter in the collection of Mr. Douglas, 

 and is utterly distinct from the one described under that name in the " Insecta 

 Britannica, Lep. Tin.," p. 166, and in Stainton's " Manual," ii, p. 360, would be 

 specially welcome. At some future date I shall have a good deal to say about these, 

 and one or two other members of the group, including the species identified by Mr. 

 Stainton as laminella, H.-S. — Eustace R. Bankes, The Rectory, Corfe Castle: 

 February 2.Uh, 1893. 



P.S. — It will be as well here to draw attention to the fact that, although in 

 Ent. Mo. Mag., xxv, the notes on B. laminella by Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher and myself 

 on pp. 15 and 16 are catalogued in the " Index to Greneral Subjects," and mine is 

 again referred to in the list of " Larvae of British Species described in this Yolume," 

 yet in the " Special Index," as well as in the list of" Additions to the British Insect 

 Fauna," they are altogether ignored! and while on the subject of this volume (xxv), 

 it may be useful to point out another serious omission which has caused me un- 

 necessary trouble before now — on p. 91 is a note by the late Mr. Stainton on 

 Chrysoclista bimaculella, and on p. 169 is a very important paper from his pen 

 about the same insect, but although both are noticed among the " General Subjects," 

 the " Special Index " contains no allusion to either of them ! — E. E. B. 



Has Butalis dissimilella, H.-S., any claim to a place on the British list? — 

 Although the only correct answer to this question is " No ! none whatever .'" its 

 name has unfortunately been included (either with or without a ? after it, but quite 

 erroneously in either case) in all the lists of British Lepidoptera, whether synonymic 

 or otherwise, that have been issued in recent years. In Ent. Mo. Mag., xiv, p. Ill, 

 there is an interesting note by Mr. E. Meyrick in reference to a single example of a 



