178 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Polyommatus Icarus at Hoy. — May I correct a slip of the pen in 

 the excellent " History of British Butterflies," now publishing in the 

 Y.N. Mr. Dale mentions the occurrence of Icarus in the Isle of Hoy. 

 This is one of the Southern Orkneys. The insect is not yet reported from 

 Shetland, it occurs, however, in the main island of Orkney, and I believe 

 that to be the most northern recorded locality in Britain. — E. E. Curzon. 



[The above note is not very clear. Hoy is not so far north as the " main 

 island of Orkney," on which Mr. Curzon admits it to have occurred. In a 

 list of the lepidoptera taken at Hoy in 1881 (Ento. xvi.), Lyccena icarus is 

 given, with the note, " The specimens are large, measuring as much as 

 1 inch 5 lines ; an unexpected fact." I do not understand the reference to 

 the Shetland Isles, which are still further North. — J.E.R.] 



Ltjperina Cespitis at Hartlepool. — I have had the pleasure to-day of 

 taking a specimen of Luperina cespitis, which is an addition to our local 

 list, and so far as I know new to the County. It was on some palings near 

 the railway, and possibly may have been brought on a goods truck, as I have 

 no doubt insects are frequently carried to new localities. — John Gardner, 

 Hartlepool, 24th August, 1887. 



Note on some Varieties of DianthvEca Conspersa from North 

 Wales and from Shetland. — In July, 1885, 1 took a friend to the Scolice- 

 formis Wood, near Llangollen, to search for that insect. Having shown him 

 its burrows in the birch tree bark, I turned my attention to other species as 

 my series was complete of " Scolise." Next day being dull we went Dian- 

 thcecia larvse hunting, and secured quite a lot of D. carpophaga, capsincola, 

 cucubali, and a few conspersa amongst them. From these few Conspersa 

 larvse I bred five good specimens, every one of which are so different from 

 the type which I have taken at Pennan Bach (North Wales), Isle of Man, 

 Cumberland, Westmoreland, and North Lancashire, and from the wonderful 

 ochreous variety of it which I bred from Mr. Curzon' s larva from 

 Hoy (see Young Naturalist in 1885-6), and which I call " Var. 

 Ochraca? that I determined to describe them as Dianthecia var. Albima- 

 culoidce. Ground colour cold deep brown, thorax dark grey, shoulder marks 

 (first striga) only just indicated, many wavy black markings on the disk, and 

 seven or eight black marks on the costa, and along the hind-margin the 

 broad arrow heads are black, the first stigmata like that of Albimacida is round, 

 white with a dark centre, the exact colour of the ground of Albimacula, as is 

 also the filling in between the black wavy lines, the second stigma is lost just 

 as in Albimacula, and the usual white marks in typical Conspersa are merged 

 into brown in var. albimaculoidce, I may say in passing that I received 



