270 



[April, 



Loew's variety Mrtipes of Tiortulanus only approaches it in the more 

 abundant bristles on the legs, it being larger than the true hortulanus 

 with whiter wings, and more white-haired abdomen. 



Erom siculus (Loew, Linnsca i, 344) the female may be at once 

 known by the colour of the thorax, which is black, but the male is not 

 so readily distinguished ; Schiner (Fauna Austriaca Diptera, ii., 859) 

 says that it has the base of the abdomen always more or less with a 

 pale pubescence, that the transverse vein is longer than the basal por- 

 tion of the cubital vein, and that the wing is darker about the costa, 

 but Loew, in the original description says, that the base of the abdomen 

 is only sometimes white haired ; siculus is also the same size as hortu- 

 lanus, therefore larger than anglicuSj and is confined to the south of 

 Europe in Sicily and Dalmatia. The male of marci may be at once 

 distinguished by its much larger size and difi'erent neuration of the 

 wings, whicli resembles hortulanus. 



I'he species is very abundant in the neighbourhood of London, 

 occurring in a garden here (Denmark Hill) by hundreds on leaves of 

 shrubs, principally on currant bushes ; the female is, as usual, much 

 more sluggish, and therefore apparently rarer than the male, which, on 

 sunny days, is continually flying and hovering about the bushes. It 

 appears about the third week in April, lasting about a fortnight, almost 

 disappearing before the time for hortulanus^ which latter comes out 

 about the third week in May ; I believe it is common all over the south 

 of England, as it is represented in all collections under hortulanus^ 

 though in the British Museum there happen to be only females, which 

 may perhaps account for its having been overlooked. There is certainly 

 no species described by Meigen, Macquart, Loew, or Zetterstedt, with 

 which this can be identical, nor can I find a single description of hortu- 

 lanus but what says " allopilosus " or its equivalent ; I call it anglicusy 

 not that I approve of local names, but I think it suits well here in op- 

 position to siculus, and even supposing it should eventually be found on 

 tlic continent, it will show that the species was first noticed in England, 

 and is abundant here. 



Denmark Hill, Londou : March, 1869. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES OF LEPIDOPTERA, CONFOUNDED WITH 

 OTHERS DESCRIBED BY LINN^US AND FABRICIUS. 



BY ARTHUR G. BUTLER, F.L.S.; Aseistant, Zoological Department, JirU. Mus. 



The following species are some that I have determined during the 

 ]nvpavatioii of a Catalogue of the Hhopnlocera of Faliriclus : many of 

 the errors committed being due to the fact of some authors having 



