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THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



days on mountains, or the dull days from smoke affects them. Again, 

 there is no such variety known as " the black variety of Ahraxes grossulariata 

 from Lancashire." This county is a rather poor breeding ground, especially for 

 grossulariata ; and it is quite new to me to hear that Tephrosia crepuscularia 

 occurs in any colour at Barnsley ; that some Lancashire entomologists have 

 bred or otherwise obtained (how and where they could) extensive series of 

 varieties of grossulariata and other varieties is patent to all, but the so-called 

 black grossulariata (var. Varleyata) are exclusively Yorkshire, whilst all the 

 dark smoky varieties of T. crepuscularia (H.D.Cat.) come from the edge of 

 South Wales. Here again geology not geography appears to have played its 

 part- — in other words the decompositions which supplied the sustenance to 

 the food-plant of the insects, taken in conjunction with my practical know- 

 ledge of the effects of different foods upon the colouration of lepidoptera, 

 lead me to the conclusion that it is to geological causes we must apply for the 

 solution of melanic variation. 



THE "YOUNG NATURALIST" LIST OF 

 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



By JOHN E. ROBSON. 



The claim made by Mr. T. P. Newman of copyright in " Doubleday's 

 Synonymic List," caused the suspension of that commenced in these pages, 

 which was asserted to infringe that copyright. I need not say that had I 

 known such a claim would be made, I would never have commenced the list 

 in that form. Having commenced it, I would have been glad to carry it 

 through, could I have made a satisfactory arrangement to do so. The terms 

 proposed by Mr. Newman were such as I could not think of accepting, and 

 as it was not worth a law suit, I was reluctantly compelled to abandon the 

 idea of completing it. So many of the readers of the Young Naturalist, 

 regretting the enforced abandonment of my former design, have urged me to 

 undertake a new list, that I have decided to do so, though with considerable 

 reluctance. I felt, and still feel, that such a work ought to be undertaken 

 by the " Entomological Society," or by a Council of British and Foreign 

 Lepidopterists, of sufficient authority to have their arrangement received with 

 confidence, and whose decision as to nomenclature would be accepted as final. 

 To me it seems the height of absurdity that the name of an insect, given in a 

 work of authority, and that has been in universal use perhaps for a century, 

 should be superseded by another name, given by some obscure author, who 



