THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. LV.] SEPTEMBEE, 1922. [No. 712 



ON THE IDENTITY OF SYMPHEROBIUS (HEMERO- 

 BIUS) ELEGANS, STEPHENS (NEUROPTERA). 



By C. L. Withycombe, B.Sc, F.E.S. 



In the 'Entomologist' for August, 1914, Mr. K. J. Morton 

 dealt with two species of Sympherobius which had been for some 

 time mixed in British collections under the name of elegans, 

 Stephens. One of these is smaller than the other and has 

 whitish interruptions on the dark brown veins in the fore wings, 

 while the other and larger species has the fore-wing venation 

 uniformly dark brown. MacLachlan, in his " Monograph of the 

 British Neuroptera Planipennia " (' Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.,' 

 1868), gave an account of the species with the white dotted 

 veins, but attributed to it the name of elegans, Steph., although 

 Stephens's description plainly refers to the anterior wings as 

 being wholly dark fuscous. MacLachlan makes no comment on 

 this discrepancy between the original description and his own, 

 although it is to be assumed that Stephens's description and 

 type were both known to him. 



With the object of determining the proper application of the 

 name elegans, Mr. Morton sent to Mr. Herbert Campion speci- 

 mens of both the species of Sympherobius in question, for com- 

 parison with the type material in the Stephens Collection at the 

 British Museum (Natural History). Mr. Campion was of opinion 

 that the larger and darker species was the true elegans of 

 Stephens, but said he preferred to await confirmation of his 

 identification by someone who had made a special study of the 

 group, before alleging against MacLachlan so strange an error 

 as had seemingly been committed. In the circumstances, there- 

 fore, Mr. Morton decided provisionally to retain for the smaller 

 variegated species the name elegans, Stephens, while employing 

 the name striatellus, Klapalek, for the larger and uniformly dark 

 species. 



A short time ago, whilst working through Stephens's Collec- 

 tion at the British Museum, I found to my surprise that the 

 elegans of Stephens was undoubtedly the wholly dark species, 

 that is, striatellus, Klap. Stephens's Collection contains no 

 representative of the white-dotted form, and therefore there can 

 have been no confusion of types. His type of elegans agrees 



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