MIQROPTERYX CALTHELLA. 145 



Stainton mentions : Belgium, in the Forest of Soignies to the south of 

 Brussels. Snellen gives Holland — at Arnhem, Rotterdam, Maastricht, 

 nr. Breda, etc. Frey mentions Zurich, Lausanne, and the Swiss Alps. 

 Of its occurrence in the Higher Alps, he says : " Da M. calthella weit 

 nordwarts verbreitet ist, so erscheint sie demgemass auch auf den 

 Alpen ; wenigstens trafen wir sie Anfang August auf den Glarnerbergen, 

 z. B. Miihlebachalp, in ungefahrer Hohe von 5000' , ebenso im 

 Engadin bei Samaden " (Die Tineen, etc., p. 48). Schiffermuller gives 

 Austria ; Schrank — Bavaria ; Turati — Lombardy ; Mann — Corsica, 

 Sicily, Croatia (Fiume), and Boumania (Dobrudscha) ; B.-Haas — Den- 

 mark ; Sand — France (Indre) ; Walsingham found the insect at 

 Rome, April 10th-25th, 1893 ; Wallengren gives Southern Norway, 

 Denmark and Sweden (Scania, Blekingra, Smolandia, Bahusia, 

 Vestrogothia, Ostrogothia and Lapponia) ; Nolcken notes Russia 

 (Kokenhausen, Groesen, Cremon, Oesel Island, Riga and St. Peters- 

 burg). It is also recorded from almost all the German provinces, 

 Sorhagen gives Grunewald, Finkenkrug, Havelland, Hamburg, etc. 



m, aruncella, Scop, and m. seppella, Fab. 

 Considerable doubt exists as to whether we have under the names 

 of M. aruncella and M. seppella, two, or one, species. Stainton, after 

 having compared aruncella, sent to him by Zeller, with British seppella, 

 says (" Monograph," etc., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1850, p. 40) : " The 

 best character by which to distinguish the male of aruncella, from the 

 male of seppella, is the position and form of the fascia ; it is more slender, 

 straighter, and placed nearer the base than in seppella. The entire 

 absence of the silvery spot on the costa towards, the apex, would 

 appear at first sight to be a more decided character, but it is often no 

 easy matter to see this spot in set specimens of seppella, and the latter 

 is sometimes without it. I, last week (June 1850), took a specimen of 

 seppella, entirely destitute of this spot, and which I was, therefore, 

 inclined to take for aruncella. The anterior wings of seppella $ are 

 narrower and greener than those of aruncella $ . I am not at present 

 aware of any character by which to separate the females of the two 

 species." If we refer to the original descriptions, we find that the species 

 (described independently) were not founded on the characters here 

 pointed out by Stainton, but on the number of the pale fasciae 

 crossing the fore-wings, Scopoli's M. aruncella having but one fascia, 

 the M. seppella of Fabricius, two. The latter described M. seppella 

 from a British specimen, which he saw in the possession of Mr. 

 Yeats, so that we know that M. seppella is a British species. 

 Zeller seems to have been the first entomologist who refused to 

 see in M. seppella, Fab., a species distinct from M. aruncella, Scop., 

 and Snellen also united the insects, treating M. aruncella as the 

 type andilf. seppella as an aberration. Meyrick has since followed these 

 authors. Referring the matter to Lord Walsingham, who has a long 

 continental series (including Zeller's), he writes : "I am able to find 

 but one species under the two names, teppella, Fab. and aruncella, 

 Scop. They vary in the direction of the central fascia, in the pre- 

 sence or absence of a costal spot, and in the degree of development 

 or distinctness of the basal streak or fascia. There is no specimen 

 in the somewhat extensive series that I have examined which can be 

 said to have no markings beyond one fascia. If such a species exists 



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