Insects. 2755 



Noctua depuncta and Dablii by sugaring ; the latter was a complete pest, and of the 

 former one hundred and twenty specimens were taken : this insect was lately doubted 

 as British, and four specimens only had been heard of. Again, I must allude to Mr. 

 Dunning' s capture of Agrophila sulphurea, and still more lately that of Polia Liche- 

 nea by my friend, Dr. Nelson, in such extraordinary profusiou. I much wish some of 

 your other correspondents would favour your readers with their views on this interest- 

 ing subject, more especially with regard to the Bombycidas. — J. B. Hodgkinson, 12, 

 Friday Street, Preston, January 8, 1 850. 



[I am much pleased to observe the spirit of liberality thus evinced in making 

 known the abundance of insects supposed to be rare. I hope Mr. Hodgkinson will 

 send me up a few boxes of Anarta melanopa, Psodos trepidaria, &c, and Dr. Nelson 

 of Polia Lichenea for distribution among entomological callers : as I have no collec- 

 tion of any kind I cannot use them as levers, but will give a series to every applicant. 

 Edward Newman]. 



On the Identity of Tortrix Penziana of Thunberg tvith Cnephasia bellana of Curtis. 

 By James Francis Stephens, Esq., F.L.S. 



In the dissertation on the insects of Sweden, by Becklin, under the presidency of 

 Thunberg, — known by the title of Thunberg's ' Insecta Suecica,' — a rare work, of 

 which I fortunately possess a copy, the following description appears in page 43 : — 



" Tortrix Penziana : Alis albis fusco-irroratis : fasciis tribus obliquis articulatis 

 nigris. 



" Habitat in Suecias meridionalibus Provinciis. Consiliar. D. Pentz. 



" Tor trice Rosana paulo major et magis oblonga. 



" Ala antic® oblongae, obtusae supra albas lineolis fuscis irrorataB ; fasciae tres ob- 

 liquae, atrs, subarticulatse articulis quadratis. Subtus fuscae, immaculatae, ciliatae. 

 Alee postica supra fuscae, subtus albidae margine exteriori fusco maculatae." 



A plate accompanies the essay, on which a figure of the insect is depicted (t. 2, 

 f. 1). The above was published in December, 1791. 



In 1796 Hubner commenced his beautiful ' Europaischer Schmetterlinge,' and 

 about 1799 plate 14 of his Tineae appeared, with a figure (No. 85) of an insect called 

 Penziana, but, as usual, without any authority being cited. From that period till 

 1816 no further notice of the name occurs in all the very numerous authorities which 

 I have consulted upon the point, not by the slovenly habits of investigation of 

 referring to the mere indexes, but by patiently wading through the respective pages. 

 In that year Hubner published his ' Verzeichniss,' &c. (an arranged index to his 

 great work), in which he refers his Penziana — which does not accord with Thunberg's 

 — to the conspersana of the Wien. Verz., thus characterized, &c, by Fabricius in his 

 Ent. Syst. (vol. iii. p. 266), 1794:— 



" P. alis anticis niveis maculis atomisque nigris sparsis. 



" Wien. Verz. 130, 14. 



" Habitat in Austria Mus. Dom. Schieffermyller. 



" Magna. Alae anticae niveae maculis parvis atomisque innumeris nigris. Postica* 

 cinereae. Corpus niveum." 



This description is too indefinite to agree either with Hubner's or Thunberg's in- 

 sects, and Treitschke entirely omits any reference thereto. Again, neither Fabricius 



