67 



if we take all the specimens in the last four rows as varieties 

 of one species, viz., comparana." 



In the discussion which followed, Mr. Barrett said that the 

 genus Peronea was an exceedingly difficult group to lepidop- 

 terists on account of the great range of variation. It was 

 thus most uncertain what characters could be relied upon 

 to distinguish the various species, and, in consequence, 

 authorities did not agree as to their number. The older 

 entomologists had named many forms as species, some of 

 which were only either local races or food varieties. One of 

 their names, proteana, H.S., showed that they recognized the 

 unstable characters exhibited by the species we name P. 

 comariana, Zell. The same species had a food variety called 

 poteutillana^ Cooke, from Lancashire. The two species, P. 

 comparana^ Hb., and P. scJialleriana, L., had always been a 

 puzzle to him, and he had sought to solve the difficulty by 

 recognizing an additional species, which he had named P. 

 pevplexana, and which was characterized by a somewhat 

 sharper apex and a longer curved point to the primaries, and, 

 generally speaking, was not so suffused in coloration. Under 

 this name he also included a paler form with the same 

 characteristics. It seemed to him to be undoubtedly an 

 intermediate species. The larvae of all this group were 

 extremely alike in form, shape, and habits, and to a greater 

 or lesser extent were general feeders. P. pevplexana was 

 obtained from hawthorn, while P. comparana and P. schalle- 

 viaita were found on sallow, but were not confined wholly to 

 it. Mr. Tutt said that in the Isle of Wight he had obtained 

 all three species from the same food plants. He was, how- 

 ever, much puzzled by his observations at Deal. There, in 

 July, he had found a small race of P. comparana confined to 

 hawthorn, while later in the year the same form was to be 

 obtained from willow. It suggested a second brood certainly, 

 but yet, as a rule, he favoured the idea of a continuous brood 

 of all the Peroneas, and in the fens such had been his expe- 

 rience. Mr. Fenn corroborated Mr. Tutt's remarks as to a 

 continuous brood. 



Mr. R. Adkin exhibited, on behalf of the Rev. J. G. 

 Greene, drawings of sixteen of the most striking varieties of 

 Abraxas grossulariata, L., bred by him during the last few 

 years, and read the following remarks : — 



"I send herewith drawings of some varieties of Abraxas 

 grossulariata, bred by myself during the past and present 

 years (1893-4). My chief object in doing so is to ventilate 

 my opinion on the subject of variation ; I do not mean 



