PORRITT : YORKSHIRE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA IN 1 878. 75 



Epunda viminalis. At Huddersfield, by myself. 



Brephos parthenias and B. notha. Both in tolerable 

 plenty at Bramham, by Mr. John Smith. 



.VARIETIES, &c. 



To most lepidopterists outside our county this will be the 

 most interesting paragraph in our report, as with the exception of 

 Lancashire, Yorkshire is more noted for extraordinary aberrations 

 than any other county; and a box containing all the unusual forms 

 obtained even during this worst of seasons would to a southern 

 variety fancier be a show not soon forgotten. Foremost would 

 come the unprecedented number of eighteen specimens of the 

 broad-black-bordered form of Abraxas grossulariata, figured 

 in Newman's 'British Moths,' and still better in Part I. of Mosley's 

 'Varieties/* Of these, fifteen were bred by the Bradford col- 

 lectors, mostly if. not all from larvas or pupse collected at Thornton, 

 near that town. The three others were obtained by Mr. William 

 Porteus of Halifax. In addition to those of the dark form, two 

 were bred by Mr. J. Firth of Bradford, of the other extreme, 

 being white and without the black markings; they were from the 

 same Thornton locality, and of course still more interesting to us 

 than the dark ones. 



The variety Doubledayaria of Amphydasis betularia 

 seems^this year to have been even more common than the ordinary 

 "peppered" form. Other remarkable specimens include a peculiar 

 dark form of Larentia didymata at Huddersfield by Mr. S. L. 

 Mosley, a fine Cidaria russata taken by myself in Armitage 

 Bridge Wood, Huddersfield, having the usually palest portion of 

 the fore wings (the light central band) perfectly black, a form 

 rarely seen even in this most variable species. Lastly, Mr. Prest 

 took a hermaphrodite Epione vespertaria at Sandburn in July. 



* This form has now become so constant and well known, that I propose 

 to name it A- grossulariata var. Varleyata, in compliment to Mr. James 

 Varley, who many years ago first introduced it to the notice of lepidopterists, 

 and also as an acknowledgment of his services in this branch of entomology. 



