Insects. 1731 



certainly cannot be admitted into the British list until Mr. Weaver, or some one, satis- 

 factorily proves it to be distinct by breeding. Of Dia, I have understood the box, in 

 which one at least of Mr. Weaver's two specimens was found, had been for som e time 

 out of his possession, and as he had believed it to contain only M. Euphrosyne, a larger 

 species and very distinct, there seems to be some doubt whether Dia was actually his 

 own capture, or had been introduced amongst his specimens by some one else without 

 his knowledge. Among other names which do not appear in the second edition, I have 

 myself proved Lophoderus subfascianus to be only the extreme variety of ministranus, 

 both by finding the two in copula, and by taking, last summer, a series exhibiting every 

 intermediate variety, which series is now in the possession of Mr. Doubleday. — /. R. 

 Hawley ; Hall Gate, Doncaster, March 20th, 1847. 



Remarks on the New Species of Lasiocampa. — In the March number of the 

 * Zoologist' (Zool. 1655) there are some observations from Mr. Weaver, endeavouring 

 to prove a new species of Lasiocampa : this has called to my mind the circumstance 

 of my capturing several larvae of L. Quercus near the fens of Huntingdonshire, twelve 

 years ago. I then observed a difference among the larva? ; on my return to town, 

 I happened to see Mr. Benjamin Standish, and related the circumstance to him : he 

 stated that he had taken some of them at the same spot two years previously, and was 

 certain they were another species, as they differed not only in the larva, but also in the 

 cocoon and perfect insect, and that he communicated the circumstance to some of the 

 leading entomologists of the day, but they paid little attention to his communica- 

 tion. A few days after this, my specimens formed their cocoons, which differed in 

 colour from those of the common species : in about fourteen days they made their ap- 

 pearance in the perfect state, the females of a much darker colour than those of the 

 common species; but the difference is more particularly discernible in the male, which 

 has a white spot on the shoulder, with the dark border of the under wing broken by 

 some yellow dashes passing through it, which I never observed in the common spe- 

 cies : there being no ' Zoologist ' at that time in which to record our observations, 

 they were forgotten, until Mr. Weaver awakened them again in my memory. How- 

 ever, the colour of insects is little to be depended on in the discrimination of spe- 

 cies, since some of the most common insects in the North are of a most beautiful deep 

 and dark colour, totally different from that of the same species taken near London, 

 even so different as to be supposed new species : this deep colour is given them by the 

 quantity of iron in the soil, which is taken up by the vegetation on which they feed. 

 But this could have had no effect on the larvae which I captured in Huntingdonshire, 

 as I found both species in one locality. I will now mention another circumstance 

 which I think tends further to prove the new species distinct. In July, of the same 

 year, I bred a female, and on the next day going to Coomb wood, I took this female 

 with me for the purpose of attracting some males, a practice well known to some en- 

 tomologists ; but although I had the time of day, the weather, and the situation, all 

 favourable to my purpose, not one male came to visit his lady-love. This circum- 

 stance I did not then understand, knowing I was on the spot where this species 

 abounds : when about leaving the wood, a male came flying about me, which I cap- 

 tured. " Oh ! " I exclaimed, " one at last ! " But what was my surprise to find it 

 one of the new species. I then examined my female, and found that in my hurry, I 

 had one of the new instead of the common species, of which I had been breeding seve- 

 ral the week before. Mr. Weaver states that they remain in the chrysalis state 

 through the winter ; I have several of the common species now in that state ; and he 



