﻿GAS-LAMP ENTOMOLOGY. 6l 



With regard to the varieties of H. hispidus found at Portland, 

 I wish, in the first place, to correct the apparent meaning of a 

 quotation which Mr. Tutt makes from a letter of mine (Entom. 

 xxii. 137), " This (var. pallida) is a more common var. and very 

 pretty." As he does not give the context, it would appear that 

 I meant " more common " than his var. argentea (which repre- 

 sents, I suppose, the commonest form at Portland), whereas I 

 have little doubt that I referred to a very small (1 in. 2 lines) 

 and dark var. (his var. obsoleta ?), of which I have only taken two 

 specimens, one a good specimen of the extreme form, and one a 

 bad specimen somewhat resembling it, which is the one I sent to 

 Mr. Tutt. I have seen no others just like these two specimens, 

 which differ from the ordinary form in being smaller, darker, and 

 having less distinct though similar markings. All the other 

 Portland specimens that I have seen resemble each other in the 

 general stjde of their markings and in size (about 1 in. 5 lines), 

 but vary a good deal in the shade of their ground colour, from 

 very pale greyish brown to almost black. There is, as Mr. South 

 says (Entom. xxii. 282), very little variation in the arrangement 

 of the markings. 



Between these two extremes there is every intermediate form, 

 and it would be impossible to make any line of division, as a 

 graduated series could be arranged in which the differences 

 between consecutive specimens would be almost imperceptible. 

 The bulk of the specimens are neither very dark nor very light, 

 but the very light ones are commoner than the very dark ones. 

 I have seen nothing that can be called a variety amongst the 

 females ; they vary a little in size, but are far more constant in 

 shade of ground colour than the males, and never very light or 

 very dark ; they are much less handsome than the males, and of 

 a less graceful shape. 



I do not possess any Torquay specimens, so cannot un- 

 fortunately compare them with those from Portland. 

 Montevideo, near Weymouth, Dec. 21st, 1889. 



GAS-LAMP ENTOMOLOGY. 

 By J. Arklk, 



Why a moth should rush to a street-lamp, and decline to 

 waste its energies in a straight course for the moon, — why, in 

 other words, the insect should be attracted by artificial light, and 

 shun that which is natural, — is a matter that has exercised the 

 minds of philosophers, ancient and modern. Between the moral 

 drawn from the question by the early Greek, and the speculation 

 of the latter-day scientist, one thing to the entomologist is 

 certain, that by taking moths " at light" he can add captures to 



