isiio.i 51 



define the boundary line where amliguaUs ends and atomaJis begins ? " Any one 

 seeing these intermediate specimens must, I think, bo driven to the same conckision 

 as to their identity, which, I believe, was first put forward by Dr. Buchanan White, 

 in the Scottish Naturalist, vol. iv, p. 244. 



In my note in Ent., vol. xviii, p. 130, and in a subsequent one in Ent., vol. xx, 

 p. 17, I pointed out that conspicualis had been merged into ulmella, and that 

 gracilalis, Zelleri, scotica, ingratella, and j^ortlandlca fphoBoleucalls of our lists), 

 must lose their claims to specific rank. 



Both these notes are referred to in Ent., 22, p. 17, from which Mr. Bankes 

 quotes, and in which I also mention that the only other remaining questions were the 

 specific identity of hasistrigalis and ambigualis, and of mercurella and cratcBgella. 

 As regards these species I hesitate to express a definite opinion as to their identity 

 until I have seen living specimens in their natural haunts, but I have seen specimens 

 of a Scoparia from the north and north-west of Ireland, which might with equal 

 confidence be referred to either species (?), mercurella or cratcsgella, in which 

 species, as with atomalis and ambigualis, the extremes seem to be abundantly distinct, 

 while the intermediates I have found it impossible to distinguish. 



If Mr. Bankes would kindly mention the peculiar characters of crata-gella to 

 which he refers, making it abundantly distinct from, and never appearing in, mer- 

 curella, he would confer a boon on many others, as well as on C. A. Beiggs, 55, 

 Lincoln's Inn Fields : January Wth, 1890. 



Scoparia angustea. — After the notes of Messrs. C. G. Barrett and G. T. Porritt, 

 Ent. Mo. Mag., xxii, pp. 42, 209, referred to by Mr. Eustace E. Bankes, ante, p. 8, 

 on the above species, Mr. W. G. Slieldon, of Croydon, published at the end of the 

 following year in the Entomologist, vol. xx, pp. 318 — 320, a full history of the two 

 bi'oods of this species. From Mr. Sheldon's notes it would appear that our southern 

 Lepidopterists fail to get many specimens of the first brood, owing to the early date 

 of their appearance, and that the capture of an odd specimen or two in May or June 

 denotes either a precocious specimen of the late, or a remarkably late specimen of 

 the early, brood. At any rate, Mr. Sheldon's notes are most conclusive that there is 

 a permanent early brood at Croydon in March and April, and a second in August. 



I quite agree with Mr. Bankes that Scoparia atomalis is a local form of S. am- 

 bigualis, as I also have a long series of intermediate forms, and I quite agree with 

 him that iS. cratcegella and S. mercurella are distinct. I have never taken S. 

 basistrigaUs, except with S. ambigualis, and have specimens of both so-called species 

 mixed in my cabinet from almost every locality I have worked. — J. W. TuTT, 

 Eayleigh Villa, Westcombe Park, S.E. : January 6th, 1890. 



On Mecyna polygonalis, Treitschke, in New Zealand. — The peculiar changes in 

 the habits and food-plants of this pretty Pyrale, and its narrow escape from ex- 

 tinction in New Zealand during the last twenty-five years, are worth placing on 

 record ; for some years after the Canterbury settlement was founded, or until the 

 annual burning of the sheep runs commenced, the larvte fed in immense numbei-s 

 among the close-growing tussock grass {Poa australis), a few years after the firing 

 of the tussock they attacked the cereal crops, and committed great havoc among 

 them, particularly in the later stages of growth. The moth is double-brooded ; the 



