LASIOCAMPA QUERCUS. 55 



transverse yellow band in these turns a little down at the anal 

 angle, but not so evidently as in var. callunae, the colour of the 

 female darker than in typical Z. quercus, but paler than in var. 

 callwi'ie. Gregson describes certain aberrations as follows : " A 

 male, expanding i" 6", light buff-brown in colour, with distinct 

 shoulder marks • two large bright light red males ; a small dark male, 

 expanding if in., without any shoulder mark ; one male with dark 

 female colouring • another male wanting the usual curved markings 

 through the wings ; a male and a female with only a faint indica- 

 tion of marking upon the hindwings, and one large female entirely 

 without any markings on the hindwings, whilst another female is of 

 a dark olive-green-brown colour without any markings except a 

 faint indication of the pale central spot, and yet another with male 

 colouring of a deep, rich, brown tint, with waved striga well defined 

 and shoulder marks fairly defined." These latter, he adds, all belong 

 to the generally recognised roboris of Stephens.* The males, he 

 observes, " sometimes have the transverse line across the forewing 

 straight, not curved, whilst in one female it is curved circularly, 

 and in one male so turned that the costal point is outwards, whilst in all 

 the southern specimens possessed, the dark portion of the wings is 

 cut somewhat, but slightly, angularly, so as to point inwards." Stephens' 

 roboris, referred to by Gregson, appears to be typical Z. quetrus, whilst 

 his Z. qtiercus has a yellow epaulette at base of forewings, and is refer- 

 able to var. callunae. The specimens from St. Anne's-on-Sea (Lanes, 

 coast) have the habit of quetrus, whilst on the upperside the S imagines 

 follow var. callunae, and on the underside quetrus. The basal patch, or 

 epaulette marking, already referred to, which is a very generalised 

 Lachneid mark, appears in almost all examples of var. callunae, 

 from whatever district they come, and to be generally absent in 

 most specimens of Z. qtiercus, yet Prout has undoubted Z. quetrus from 

 Southend with it, and Hering notes that, in Pomerania, the males — 

 from larvae full-fed and pupating in June, the imagines emerging the 

 next month, and, therefore, with the quenus habit — always have a 

 yellow patch at the base of the forewings, a character almost equally 

 marked in the St. Anne's-on-Sea Z. quetrus, to which we have already 

 referred. Warburg and Bacot's examples of var. tneridionalis and var. 

 viburni from southern France have no trace of the marking. 



The following is an attempt to tabulate the most frequent aberra- 

 tional forms of the males of this species : 



Ground colour reddish or ferruginous. 



1. With narrow, almost straight, oblique, yellow (or ochreous) transverse band 

 to forewings, and narrowband to hindwings— ^z^/rzu, Linn. 



2. With narrow, curved, yellow (or ochreous), transverse band to fore- and hind- 

 wingsz=ab. curvata, n. ab. 



3. With broad transverse band to fore- and hindwingsr=ab. latovirgata, n. ab. 



4. With normal transverse band to forewings, the transverse band of hindwings 

 extending to outer marginzrrab. semimarginata, n. ab. 



5. With transverse band to fore- and hindwings extending to outer marginz=ab. 

 marginata, n. ab. 



6. With yellow blotch at base of forewings— ab. basipuncta, n. ab. 



Ground colour chestnut-brown. 

 1. With narrow, almost straight, oblique, yellow for ochreous), transverse band 

 to forewings, and narrow band to hindwingsr=ab. spartii, Hb. 



* We have examined these, and find that they belong to var. callunae, Gregson 

 evidently erroneously using roboris, Stephens, as a synonym of var. callunae. 

 Stephens' roboris is typical quercus, whilst the quercus of the same author is callunae. 



