Ill 



Paris, 1829, and as this specific name is not in use for any other 

 species, it should certainly replace Staudinger's varietal name of 

 1 86 1. I propose, therefore, that in future this insect be called 

 Zygcena medicagi?iis, Bdv. There can be no doubt of the scientific 

 inaccuracy of linking it with trifolii. If we do so, then all the 

 European five-spotted Zygsenas had better be considered as one 

 species. I am quite aware that the term "species "is a conven- 

 tional one, and its use a convenient method by which we can at 

 once discriminate what others are speaking of, or to what they 

 refer. But as it has a conventional usage which represents a 

 certain rather indefinite, and yet in other ways definite, value, it is 

 advisable to break off the unscientific connection which appears to 

 be set up when medicaginis is considered as a variety of Z. trifolii. 



Now, let us turn to the specimens themselves which I exhibit, 

 a sample only, however, of the larger number observed. Not a 

 trace is to be seen of the general variation to which we are so 

 accustomed in Z. trifolii ; neither the union of the pairs of spots 

 nor their extension to form red blotches is to be observed. On 

 the other hand, the spotting and markings are regular and con- 

 stant, more so, indeed, than in our usually invariable Z. lonicerce. 

 There is, as you will observe, a considerable amount of sexual 

 dimorphism, the females being much larger insects, as a rule, 

 than the males. There is a tendency, too, to form pallid spots 

 and blotches in the red, a condition engendered probably by the 

 exposure to which the larvEe or pupte are frequently subject in the 

 highland homes they haunt. At any rate, such conditions are not 

 compatible with the most perfect reconstruction of healthy tissue 

 after histolysis has taken place, and a tendency to produce sickly 

 larvse with weakly tissue and resulting in ill-formed pigment appears 

 to be a natural sequence. 



Such are the observations I have been able to string together 

 on Zygcena medicaginis. As Z. carniolica recalls the lovely larch 

 woods and flowery slopes of Swiss valleys, Z. medicaginis is inter- 

 woven in the cobwebs of my memory with the grim and rugged 

 peaks, massive rocks, beetling cliffs and seething torrents which 

 cut those marvellous chasms of terrific beauty and grandeur which 

 one meets among the impressive scenery which characterises the 

 Pass of the Little St. Bernard. 



Zygaena ochsenheimeri, Zell. 



By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. Read January 10th, 1895.1 



In the favourite Burnet clearing, among the larch woods at 

 Courmayeur, vv-hiist the beautiful Zygcena carniolica and Z. frans- 

 alpina, Z. achillece. and Z. pilosellce blundered about from flower to 



^ Printed here by desire. 



