1892.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



161 



have narrower wings and are fairly constant, and like no other form of 

 festiva. As I said above, the argument has drifted from nomenclature 

 to a question of whether, what I will allude to as the Shetland var. 

 conflita, is a species, sub-species, or variety. Mr. Hewitt (ante p. 77) 

 says, when speaking of the Shetland va.r. confliia, "which Mr. Tutt 

 wishes to establish as a species." I don't think Mr. Tutt wishes to do 

 anything of tlie sort; in his "British Noctuae," Vol. II., p. 122, he 

 certainly treats it as a siib-species, but surely a sub-species comes 

 nearer to being a variety than a distinct species, it depends so entirely 

 on what we understand as a sub-species and variety. I quite believe 

 that the term "5«^-species," as applied to a local race of a species, in 

 its turn having its own varieties, will, ere long, be very generally used, 

 as the old feeling against describing and naming local races of a 

 species wears away, as it must do with the growth of the present 

 desire for studymg variation. I cannot agree with Mr. Hewitt when 

 he says "where Shetland forms of festiva and var. confiua are mixed 

 up, I am sure it would be impossible for the most experienced 

 entomologist to tell 't'other from which.' " No doubt other forms of 

 festiva occur at Shetland, but if Mr. Hewitt has 3iny festiva from the 

 mainland he cannot separate from the true Shetland var. confiua, all I 

 can say is that they must be true confliia also, and he has proved that 

 it is to be taken on the mainland. For my part, I can say with Mr. 

 Tutt, that I have seen no form of festiva from the mainland of Great 

 Britain which could not easily be separated from the true confiua of 

 Shetland. In conclusion, may I broach the delicate subject of the 

 personalities which have crept into this discussion. We are used to 

 such in newspapers of opposite politics, indeed, we look for it ; no 

 General Election would be complete without a good dose of it, but in 

 a scientific discussion it seems most undesirable and out of place, and 

 in no way conducive to a satisfactory solution of a subject for 

 argument. — Wm. Farren, F.E.S., Cambridge. 



Micro-Larvae for the Month. — This is a busy month, and 

 towards the end we shall find larvae plentiful everywhere. The 

 following are a few, out of the great number, that may now be taken : 

 In the shoots of holly the larva of G. navana is now to be taken 

 commonly, and in those of maple, D. fovskaleaiia ; the shoots of the 

 Vaccinium is also to be found drawn together by the larva of G. 

 geniinana ; H. cruciana in sallow shoots ; and boreing down the stems 

 of Chrysanthemum leucanthemiun the larva of D. acuminetana is now busy, 

 causing them to drop ; in the leaves of the same plant may now be 

 found the larv^a of Bucc. nuriuiaculella eating away the parenchyma ; 

 in the topmost shoots of young Scotch firs the larva of P. huoliniia is 

 almost sure to be found, especially in open parts of woods, and in the 

 shoots, particularly the ends of the lower branches of the older trees 



