64 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



the speculative questions. That I could give other illustrations of variation 

 where male and female differ will be patent to practical men, and when I say 

 1 have three well marked forms of male Lipavis dispar } viz., the rich cold 

 dark brown form, the fulvous brown form, common to everybody, and a series 

 of the light banded form bred by somebody at or near Darlington recently. 

 I have this form 40 years old, the ground colour being almost as light as in 

 the female, with a broad dark margin. Mr. Robsonsays in page 210 Young 

 Naturalist, " Wherever there are two well marked forms of an insect, whether 

 sexual or otherwise, the absence or rariety of intermediate forms seems to re- 

 quire explanation." Now, though I could lengthen this list of species having 

 intermediate forms, without leaving my chair, I confess I could no more ex- 

 plain the absence or rarity of intermediate forms, than I could why or for 

 what purpose the female of Parnassus mnemosyne has the hollow sac be- 

 neath its abdomen, whilst no other Parnassus has any such sac. 



Another question answered and I conclude. Mr. Robson asks from how 

 many specimens my series of intermediate forms of Betularia were selected. 

 They were principally purchased from two breeders, at so much per dozen — 

 " take any color or form you like, plenty of all sorts to pick from " ; but I 

 may say the dark speckled form is the rule at Bidston Hill, where I used to 

 collect its larva, and I never bred aught but black ones from Simond's Wood 

 Moss. The first is a dry sandstone hill, the latter is a wet turf moss, in 

 both places the larvae fed upon birch ! Thus, I think, Mr. Robson's inter- 

 esting question is brought to an issue. Mr. Robson asks what proportion 

 did the type and the black form bear to the intermediates ? When I pur- 

 chased the South Lancashire bred specimens the proportion was, as near as I 

 recollect, about equal, light and intermediate, the other half black ; all I have 

 bred from Simond's Wood Moss were black, and all I have bred or captured at 

 Bidston Hill intermediates ; from Warrington (see N. Greening's paper) 

 half light, half dark, no intermediates, bred repeatedly ; from Grange-in- 

 Cartmell all light, hundreds of larva taken on birch, growing on Carboni- 

 ferous limestone. Knowing these facts let us apply them. 



REPUTED BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



By JOHN E. ROBSON. 



No. 6. CUCULLIA ARTEMISIA, Fab. 



In all the older lists of British Lepidoptera appears the name of Cucullia 

 Artemisia, Fab. I find it so recently as 1846, in the second edition of 

 Hawley and Evan's " Catalogue of British Lepidoptera ; but in 1850 Mr. 



