A CATALOGUE OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF IRELAND. 17 



the colour of the flowers, and making for them directly. Sugar 

 attracts this species as well as D. cucuhali. Localities: — North 

 coast of Derry and Antrim ; Magilligan, Ballycastle, Portrush, 

 abundant (C), and Kathlin I. ; Shores of L. Swilly, scarce 

 (C.) ; Lagan Fields and Colin Glen, Belfast (IF.), and Dunmurry 

 (Bw.), plentiful ; Co. Westmeath (supra); Enniskillen, not scarce 

 (S.) ; Drumreaske, Monaghan; Tyrone; Armagh, scarce (J.); 

 Glandore, Co. Cork (D.) ; and Old Head of Kinsale ; Dursey I. 

 and the Blaskets, ordinary form, Co. Kerry ; Knocknarea, Sligo 

 [Buss.) ; Salthill, Co. Galway (Ciirz.). 



[DiANTHCECiA COMPTA, Fb. — There is no satisfactory evidence 

 for t-^e inclusion of this species in the Irish list. Mr. Bond was 

 under the impression that Mr. Weaver took the specimen in his 

 cabinet in Ireland, but probably it was otherwise. There are two 

 genuine examples in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, 

 which formed part of Mr. Tardy's collection, who worked chiefly 

 in the neighbourhood of Bray ; but they are not labelled, and 

 might have been sent him by friends, as it included many 

 undoubted English insects not of his capture, and so was not 

 exclusively Irish. Nevertheless Mr. Birchall, who wrote after 

 Mr. Tardy's death, seems to have been convinced of their having 

 been taken in Ireland by him, though he could not indicate the 

 locality of their capture.] 



DiANTHCECiA cAPsiNCOLA, Hb. — Generally distributed and 

 common. Though admittedly a wholly distinct species, the 

 purple colour of the imago, and a tinge of the same in the larva 

 of D. cucubali seems the only distinction. The outer edge of the 

 reniform stigma of the latter is usually, but not always, straighter 

 I think, than that of the species under notice. In the female, 

 however, the very extended ovipositor of D. capsincola is a 

 remarkable trait. 



DiANTHCECiA CUCUBALI, Fues. — Found not uncommonly and 

 very widely throughout Ireland, and frequents the sea-coast as 

 well as inland localities, where it seems generally more numerous. 

 At Farnham, near Cavan, I once saw a crowd assembled near a 

 female apparently recently emerged. It comes to sugar sparingly. 

 As noticed by Mr. Tutt in ' British Noctuae,' the species is a very 

 stable one ; but I have taken a melanic specimen on the Blasket 

 Islands which, while retaining all the pencilling on the blackish 

 ground colour, has only the slightest trace of purple perceptible. 

 It occurred in company with melanic variations of other species, 

 due, in my opinion, to isolation acting in concurrence with a 

 tendency to protective adaptation. 



DiANTHCECiA CAPSOPHILA, Dup. — Mr. Birchall writes: — " First 

 captured by Mr. Barrett, in June, 1860 (see ' Zoologist,' p. 7324) ; 

 occurs commonly on the Hill of Howth, but has not yet been 



ENTOM. — JAN. 1896. 9> f^ Pli 9 A ^ 



