THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



83 



as he takes no interest in such things, 

 was not considered careful enough to 

 trust with the rarer species Mr. T. then 

 had feeding. On his return at the end 

 of July Mr. Tugwell found one specimen 

 had emerged, though some of the larvae 

 continued to feed for a fortnight longer. 

 Of course, the specimen explained the 

 mystery, for it was Autumiiaria. Mr. 

 Harbour was immediately informed, and 

 he set to work to seek the insect, and 

 guided by the knowledge of where he 

 had taken his supposed Angularia in 

 former years, he has after diligent search 

 managed to secure no less than twenty- 

 eight specimens. Some of these we 

 have seen. One very fine male is before 

 us now, good in all respects. Another, , 

 equally fin?, though very difi"erent in 

 hue, has both the wing tips badly 

 broken. Still neither of them are in I 

 that condition we would expect to find j 

 in bred insects. We are quite sure that I 

 but for the known importation of foreign 

 eggs, no doubt would ever have been 

 thrown on the authenticity of these or 

 Mr. Tugwell's bred specimens. But 

 after having read the correspondence on 

 both sides between Messrs. Tugwell, 

 Harbour, and others, we are quite sure 

 that Harbour's first captures date earlier 

 than the importation of foreign eggs. 

 Mr. Tugwell's failure to recognize the 

 species, either as imago or larva, is 

 made a strong point of by Mr. Gregson, 

 but Mr. Tugwell did recognize the 

 species, and picked out the large female 

 named above as far back as 1878. He 

 did not recognize the male at the same 

 time, and perhaps he fell into the same 



mistake as Mr. Gregson with respect to 

 size, and never thought of it being 

 Autumnaria, because it was only an inch 

 and a half in expanse. There is the 

 error. We have in our European col- 

 lection a female that only expands an 

 inch and a half, and Mr. Bond informs 

 us he has a British female, taken in 

 Hampshire by Mr. Heath in 1879, that 

 is the same size. So that the test of 

 size fails. We would observe, however, 

 that there appears to be more variation 

 in the size of females than males, for we 

 have one (French) female that expands 

 2^ inches, while all the males we have 

 seen, or have dimensions of, only vary 

 from I to 2 inches. Next, Mr. Tugwell 

 did not recognize the larvae, but he was 

 told they were Angularia, which he did 

 not know. He only had verbal descrip- 

 tions to refer to, which at best are very 

 misleading. Lei any one who thinks 

 he ought to have made them out com- 

 pare Newman's description of the larva 

 of Angularia with Stainton's of Alniaria 

 f autumnaria J , Besides, they were not 

 full fed. Mr. Harbour at one time had 

 thought Mr. Tugwell had deceived him, 

 and knew the larvae in the breeding 

 cage to be Autumnaria. Whilst under 

 that impression he made some foolish 

 remarks on the subject that we do not 

 care to repeat. But no one who knows 

 Mr. Tugwell would believe him capable 

 of such a trick. Besides, his conduct 

 proves it was not so, for he did not ask 

 to have the larvae then feeding, but 

 only, if eggs were got from them might 

 he have some. That Mr. Harbour sent 

 him all was not Mr. Tugwell's fault, 



