6o 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



it exists in other localities near, as just out of the 

 lake district, at Caldbeck, it is found in great 

 plenty. 



60. Unto margarihfer, L. — 1 have one example of 

 this species from the Greta, at Keswick, and 

 another from Chapel Beck, Bassenthwaite, the 

 only specimens I have seen, though the village 

 lads tell me they often find them at the latter place 

 during very dry summers. 



6i: Pisidium fontinale, Drap. — Not common ; in 

 feeders to the lakes at both Keswick and Bassen- 

 thwaite. 



62. Pis. pusillum, Gmelin. — Very plentiful, and 



in one or two localities at Bassenthwaite, very 

 large, clean, and shining. 



It will be remarked that not a single species of 

 the genus Sphccrium is enumerated in the above 

 list, and it is not owing to the fact of their not 

 having been sought for, that it is so. I have 

 walked miles and spent days in the search, but so 

 far my efforts have been in vain. Neither have I 

 yet seen a specimen of Anodoii or Unto pictorum 

 and tumidus from this district, but hope during the 

 present season to add them and a few other omis- 

 sions to my local collection. 



Chapel House, Bassenthwaite, Keswick; April, 1894. 



BLACK VARIETY OF BOARMIA ROBORARIA. 



By Samuel James Capper, F.L.S., FES. 



When reading the article by Mr. Carrington upon 

 "Wild Animals and Civilization" (ante p. 36), I was 

 much interested in his remarks upon the changing 

 types of certain moths in districts where the tree 

 trunks are more or less blackened by coal smoke. 



In my own time I have watched the gradual 

 increase in numbers of species and specimens 

 which show a tendency to 

 become darker. Whether 

 from the same cause or 

 not, there are other 

 species showing this 

 change ; for instance 

 Eupithecia albipunctata in 

 the north of England. I 

 think I am correct in 

 referring also to a dark 

 form of larvae of A braxas 

 grossnlariaia which is 

 found near one of the large 

 towns of either North- 

 umberland or Durham. 

 A darkly suffused variety 

 of that very black and 

 white moth, Melanthia 

 albicillata, has been found 

 in Yorkshire. It was 

 figured in the " Ento- 

 mologist ' ' and named by 

 Mr. Carrington himself, 

 I think, var. suffusa. 



The Boarmiidas seem especially liable to the 

 development of the black forms. I had not heard 

 of any black B. roboraria, however, until recently, 

 when I became the lucky possessor of seven black 

 ones, a form of which is here figured, with a normal 

 specimen for contrast. These varieties are 

 brilliantly black, as will be seen by the excellent 

 drawing of one of my males. I have three such, 



B. ROBORARIA TYPE AND BLACK VAR. 



and three equally dark females. They were all 

 the progeny, artificially reared, of a pair of black 

 parents found together on an oak tree, near one of 

 the large south midland manufacturing towns. 

 The seventh specimen I had pleasure in adding 

 to the fine collection of Mr. Sidney Webb, of Dover. 

 It will be very interesting if we find a dark race 

 established in a state 

 of nature where the 

 original parents of my 

 series of black forms 

 were taken. 



I can quite confirm the 

 statement about the 

 steady increase in num- 

 bers of dark specimens of 

 Amphidasys be tularin, and 

 Tephrosia biundularia in 

 Lancashire and. Cheshire 

 within my own times. I 

 have also heard the late 

 Noah Greening, Nicholas 

 Cooke, and Joseph Side- 

 botham comment upon 

 the same fact. If we 

 could have the actual 

 history of the early ap- 

 pearance of these forms 

 from some of the older 

 Lancashire collectors, I 

 feel sure the details would 

 be of considerable scientific value as showing the 

 development of "species." 



As I am not aware that any figures exist of a 

 black roboraria, I gladly accepted Mr. Carrington's 

 offer to reproduce one of mine in the pages of 

 Science-Gossip, when he was last week overlook- 

 ing my collections. 



Huyton Park, Liverpool ; April $th, 1894. 



M^SW 



