NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 355 



Blosyris malitiosa. 

 Blosyris ojngeiia, Hiibner, Exot. Schmett. ii. pi. 211, j&gs. 1-4 



(1806). 

 Brujas malitiosa, Guenee, Noct. iii. p. 140, n. 1521 (1852). 

 B. infans, Guenee, L c, p. 141, n. 1523 (1852). 

 B. indiidens, Walker, Lep. Het. xiv. p. 1256, n. 13 (1857). 

 Latebraria contacta, Walker, I. c, p. 1284, n. 5 (1857). 

 Para, Brazil, Theresopolis. In Coll. B. M. 



A slightly variable species, closely allied to the following, 

 which, however, differs somewhat in the position of the lines 

 across the wings on the under surface, and may, therefore, be 

 distinct. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND OBSEEVATIONS. 



"Zyg^na meliloti?" — Under this heading, Mr. J. H, Fowler has a 

 note (Entom. 127, 128) to the effect that two examples of a Zygoma, which 

 he had taken on a chalk-hill in Dorset, were pronounced by Mr. Charles 

 GuUiver, of Brockenhurst, to be undoubtedly meliloti. Subsequently 

 Mr. Fowler very kindly made me a present of these two moths, and on 

 examination I found them to be very small and thinly-scaled specimens of 

 trifolii, bearing a superficial resemblance to meliloti, but genuine trifolii 

 without, to my mind, any shadow of a doubt. The only other record of 

 the occurrence of meliloti in this country is to be found in Mr. C. W. Dale's 

 ' Lepidoptera of Dorsetshire' (1886), and runs as follows: — "A single 

 specimen was taken on Parley Heath, by J. C. Dale, years ago." Not 

 having seen the specimen referred to, I can say nothing about it, but, as 

 regards the locality mentioned. Parley " Heath " (or " Common," as it is 

 called on the maps) is situated partly in Dorset and partly in Hants, and 

 about four or five miles from the western boundary of the New Forest 

 ( Hants), in which lies the home of Z. meliloti in Britain. — Eustace R. 

 Bankes; The Rectory, Corfe Castle, Dorset, Nov. 2, 1893. 



The Melanism Controversy. — I was rather surprised by capturing a 

 black variety of the bee, Melecta punctata, on the 16th of April last. The 

 species is a fairly common one, and it is a parasite of another bee, 

 Antliophora retusa, but it is the only instance of the black variety being 

 found in Dorsetshire. Its appearance in such a bright and warm spring as 

 we have had this year, seems rather opposed to the idea that melanism is 

 caused by cold and sunless climates. Mr. Kane, in his paper on the above 

 subject, says that he does not know that any portion of the Rhopalocera in 

 the British Islands are remarkable for melanochroic tendencies. Perhaps 

 not; but where do we find whitish or brilliant-coloured species of Lepi- 

 doptera, such as Melanargia galatea, Lyccena corydon, L. adonis, Eubolia 

 Mpunctaria, Melanippe procellata, the light variety of Gnophos obscuraria, 

 &c. ? Why, on the white and light-coloured soils of the South of England, 

 i. e., chalk and limestone. On the other hand, we find the dark variety of 

 O. obscuraria, and various dark-coloured species, on black peaty soils. 



