MICROPTEEYX ARUNCELLA. 147 



Original description. — Long. lin. 1£. Alae anticse auratas, cum 

 intermixto violaceo-rubro colore ; fronte aureis pilis pubescente. 

 Antennae nigricantes. Mas fascia pallida lineari ; fasmina absque 

 alarum fascia. Copiosa in paniculis Acteae, Arunci (Scopoli, Ent. 

 Camiolica, No. 660, p. 254). 



Imago. — Fore-wings 6|-8 mm. ; golden-brown, with the costa at the 

 base purple ; in the $ a straight, slender, silvery fascia in the centre of 

 the wing and a small silvery spot near the base. Posterior wings 

 grey, the apical portion tinted with purple. 



Sexual dimorphism. — The anterior wings of the female are golden- 

 brown in colour, with the costa, at the base, purple, and entirely 

 destitute of the silvery markings of the male. 



Notes on so-called British M. aruncella. — We have already 

 pointed out (ante, p. 145) that Stainton, on comparing Continental 

 specimens of M. aruncella from Zeller, found them to differ from his 

 own British series of M. seppella. We are not disposed to think that 

 these differences are of specific value, more especially as Stainton refers 

 specimens captured at Darenth Wood, Sydenham and Penge, to M. 

 aruncella. Our opinion that the British specimens passing as 21. 

 aruncella are co-specific with 21. seppella receives confirmation from 

 various lepidopterists. Meyrick says : " The variety of the male with 

 a posterior costal mark, has long been regarded as a distinct species 

 under the name of M. seppella, but the two forms are connected by 

 gradual transitions" (Handbook, etc., p. 806). Atmore writes : "I 

 have long regarded M. seppella, and the so-called British M. aruncella, 

 as one species. The specimens appear to occur in forms which are 

 difficult to refer to either the one or the other " (in litt.). Bankes says : 

 " The specimens standing in my collection under the name M. aruncella 

 were taken in company with typical 21. seppella, and are, I have no 

 doubt only forms of that species, differing from the type in the 

 absence of the silvery spot near the apex, and, in some cases, in the 

 silvery fascia near the base being reduced to a spot or inconspicuous, 

 but the median fascia is quite as oblique as in any 21. seppella.'" On 

 the other side, Hamm says: " 21 . seppella is fairly abundant in the 

 Beading district (parts of the counties of Berks, Hants and Oxon), but 

 21. aruncella only occurs very sparingly, not more than two or three in 

 a season. These, however, are taken in a similar manner, and at 

 about the same time of year as the commoner species " (in litt.). As 

 Zeller, throughout his writings, unites 21. aruncella and 21. seppella, 

 and gives characters common to both, his descriptions do not help us 

 much. He diagnoses (Linn. Entom., v., p. 325) two forms, of which 

 the first may be 21. aruncella, and the second, 21. seppella (unless, 

 indeed, the reference to the transverse spot before, and the straight 

 striga beyond, the middle, makes both referable to the latter), as 

 follows: — 



a. — Capillis ferrugineis ; alis ant. virescenti-aureis basi ad costam purpurea: 

 <? (post-mortem sulcato), macula transversali ante, striga recta post medium 

 argenteis, J unicoloribus. 



b. — <r , gutta costali ante apicem argentea. 



None of ..these notes help much the question of whether we have 

 two distinct species, the unifasciate aruncella, Scop., and the bifasciate 

 seppella, Fab. They do show pretty clearly that so-called British 

 21. aruncella are co-specific with 21. seppella. Meyrick, after sinking 



