Insecis. 



8405 



equally. They would also eat plum freely, and elm. They began to go under about 

 July 6th. I tin ned out a number of larvae on two birches and an elm in my field, but 

 failed to find any pupae at their roots afterwards, perhaps from tbe trees not being suf- 

 ficiently isolated. With regard to the time of emerging from pupa, I observed that 

 all the eight specimens which I had this spring came out about noon or soon after, 

 when the temperature was highest; never in the night or in the forenoon ; while 

 Himera pennaria, which I have been breeding lately, invariably emerges during the 

 uigbt. T hope to make some more observations next March, and to try some experi- 

 ments which I omitted to do this year. — E. Horton ; Wick, near Worcester, November 

 21, 1862. 



Occurrence of Hybernia boreata near York. — I had the pleasure of taking a very 

 fine specimen of this insect about the middle of November, in the same locality where 

 Mr. Birks took his two years since. It very rarely occurs near York, but that may 

 perhaps be attributed to its being passed for H. brumata. I took it along with H. 

 aurantiaria, which has been remarkably fine this year. — S. J. Carringlon ; Clifton, 

 York, December 15, 1862. 



Descriptions of the Imago and Larva of Eupithecia fraxinata, an English species 

 new to Science, and also of those of E. innolata, with which it has hitherto been con- 

 founded. — I have for some time suspected that our British ash-feeding Eupithecia 

 innotata was distinct from the typical continental species bearing that name; the 

 habits of the respective larvae, their colour and food-plants being so different, that it 

 seemed to me impossible that they could belong to the same species. During the past 

 spring, Professor Zeller kindly sent me some pupae and perfect insects of the conti- 

 nental species. The former all emerged, and I hoped to have obtained impregnated 

 eggs, but could not get any of the moths to pair. They so closely resembled our 

 English E. innotata, that I could scarcely bring myself to think that they were distinct ; 

 at any rate I determined to wait till I could compare the respective larvae. In the 

 course of the summer my friend Mr. Greene obtained a small batch of impregnated 

 eggs of our British species, from a pair of moths bred in confinement, from larvae taken 

 in the autumn of 186i^on ash, in Derbyshire. He sent me four; from these I reared 

 two larvae, and as soon as they were full-fed, despatched them to Professor Zeller, at 

 Messnitz. He at once wrote to say that they were in every way so totally different 

 from the larva? of the true continental E. innotata that there could be no question 

 whatever as to our British insect being a distiuct species. A short time since, M. 

 Zeller obligingly sent me four full-fed larvae of the continental species, taken by him- 

 self on Artemisia campestris, their typical food-plant, at Messnitz. I at once came 

 to the same conclusion with himself as to the specific distinction of the two insects. 

 It is scarcely possible for two larvae to be more dissimilar. Mr. Buckler has, with his 

 usual kindness, drawn for me the most woudrously life-like figures of each larva, and 

 I have myself taken accurate descriptions. I forwarded the drawings to Mr. Double- 

 day as soon as I received them from Mr. Buckler. He says that there can be no 

 question whatever about the distinctness of our British insect from the continental 

 E. innotata. With his entire concurrence, I have therefore ventured to name the 

 former Eupithecia fraxinata, Crewe. It is, as far as my own experience and that of 

 my friend Mr. Greene goes, exclusively an ash-feeder, and it is entirely impossible to 

 give it a more appropriate title. The perfect insects are wondrously alike, almost as 

 much so as Acronycta Psi and A. tridens; Eupithecia fraxinata is, however, invariably 

 a duiker and more dingy-looking insect. Mr. Westwood has kindly written out for 



