iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



141 



THE PTEROPHORINA OF BRITAIN, 



BY J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



( Continued from page 46.) 



0. disfans, 7.eU. — This pretty little double-brooded species appears 

 to be almost entirely restricted to the coast sands, and to the " Breck " 

 district, which is practically an old coast line; it is therefore very local, 

 and rarely occurs in any abundance. 



Synonymy — Distans, Zell. "Isis" (1847), 903, "Linn. Ent. Zeit.," 

 VI., 345 ; H.-S., v., p. 372 ; Prey 408 ; Tutt, " Ent. Record," I., 94. 

 Tristis YRY. b. Zell. "Isis" (i847\ 38. Didactyla, Haw., 477: This 

 species was added to the British list by Lord Walsingham, who 

 captured imagines near Thetford, in 1868. Dr. Jordan first referred 

 to them in the " Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," Vol. VI., p. 122, 

 as 0. listus. They retained this name until some 12 years after, when 

 Dr. Jordan wrote : — " The Oxyptilus caught near Thetford and in 

 other parts of our Eastern counties is changed from IcFtus to distans. 

 There is no doubt about this. Prof. Zeller first pointed out the 

 mistake to me several years ago ; latiis is a smaller insect, and indeed 

 very different " (" Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," Vol. XVIII., 

 p. 122}. In the same volume (January, 1882) Mr. C. G. Barrett, 

 p. 178, writes: — Distans is larger, darker in colour, and coarser- 

 looking than Icetiis, but I cannot find any reliable distinctions in 

 markings between them, that is, between typical distans and Icetns 

 received from Professor Zeller. The original British specimens from 

 near Thetford, to which the name Icstns was applied, were second-brood 

 specimens taken late in July, 1868, and these were lighter and brighter 

 coloured than those of the first brood, which was not met with, either 

 in that or the following year. I remember very well the day — June 

 4th, 1870 — when the first specimens of the first brood were taken, 

 when about thirty fell to two nets at Brandon. Of these, the majority 

 were larger and decidedly darker in colour than those of the second 

 brood, and agreed accurately with types of distans ; and whenever, in 

 subsequent years, I collected at Brandon in June, I found these typical 

 distans mixed with specimens inclining towards the brighter-coloured 

 form, of which the second brood was mostly composed. There can, 

 therefore, be no doubt whatever that Dr. Jordan is correct in applying 



