THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



213 



NOTE ON BRITISH LIPARIS DISPAR, AND 

 UPON THE NATIVITY OF CLOSTERA 

 ANACHORETA NOW IN THE NOR- 

 THERN CABINETS OF BRITISH 

 INSECTS. 



By C. S. GREGSON. 



At page ]92, of "The Young Naturalist," for October, 1887, Mr. Tutt 

 very properly animadverts upon the British claims of these two insects now 

 in our English cabinets. 



I know little of the modern southern collections, or how they are being 

 supplied now, but I know that the broods of L. dispar distributed by Mr. 

 Doubleday, many years ago, were kept up pure for very many years by my- 

 self and others, and produced splendid large specimens. The females are 

 very large, and have a somewhat zigzag, well-defined band across the middle. 

 Fed upon different foods, the males produced were of various colours, from 

 dark black brown (the old type colour), reddish browns, and whitish speci- 

 mens approaching the female colour, and having a broad dark cold brown 

 and distinctly defined band across the middle like the females have, and a 

 broad dark marginal band on all the wings (var. Marginana of my cabinet). 

 Many years ago, a whole brood of this light form were bred from eggs laid 

 by the progeny of the. specimens bred from Mr. Doubleday's eggs, sent 

 by him to me ; they were dwarfed specimens from want of food and attention. 

 Part of that brood is still in my possession. The produce from them threw 

 back to the original colour, and assumed the usual appearance and size, on 

 being well fed and cared for both in food and water. A few years ago a 

 brood of this light variety was bred in the North of England, by a collector 

 of insects. They were large, light, well-marked specimens, and were secured 

 by two dealers. I got some of them from King, of Great Portland Street, 

 they are exactly like the light brood named above, in colour and markings, 

 but are much larger. So much, then, for the specimens of L. dispar in the 

 northern cabinets. I should only fill valuable space in the Y.N. if I told 

 how persistently Old Cooper, N. and B. Cooke, myself, and others, kept up 

 these broods long after the species had ceased to be taken at Ongar Park, 

 its original home. 



Touching Clostera anac/ioreta, this species is generally associated with the 

 name of a gentleman who was once an entomological comet, who lost his tail 

 and passed into the shade as comets are wont to do; but to Old Weaver is 



