THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



103 



work that will serve the beginner as a start- 

 ing point, for it must be admitted that 

 without guide of any sort the study of any 

 group is extremely difi&cult. There is a 

 recent work by the above-named gentleman 

 which is published at twenty-five shillings, 

 but one at a few shillings which could be 

 purchased by any schoolboy would no doubt 

 do its share of good. 



WINTER MOTHS— VARIA- 

 TIONS. 



In preparing the plates to illustrate our 

 paper on Winter Moths, which we gave on 

 page 29. we found it very difficult to get all 

 the varieties of the several species with 

 which the young collector is likely to meet, 

 upon two plates, so we determind to issue a 

 third, devoting it entirely to the very vari- 

 able H. defoliaria. There are, of course, 

 many other varieties besides those we have 

 figured, but they are either not sufficiently 

 striking, or are so rare that they are not 

 likely to be met with. 



P.pilosaria, for instance, varies in almost all 

 districts, some specimens are very distinctly 

 mottled, while others are almost uniform olive 

 grey (the colour of the darker portions of the 

 wings). These two forms are not very strik- 

 ing, and any person collecting them will read- 

 ily see they are referable to the same insect. 

 But at Bradford another form, quite distinct 

 from either of these by being uniform sooty 

 black, has been taken by several collectors 

 there. The other insects on plate i are not 

 liable to vary much, but we have seen 

 varieties of all though some of them are 

 rare. C. hrumata sometimes occurs with a 

 dark band across the centre of the wings 

 like that in the female. The other day we 

 had the opportunity of comparing a long 

 series of Boreata taken near York with others 

 taken near Bradford, and we found the 

 former several shades darker than the latter. 



On plate 2 we have represented two forms 

 of H. Uucophearia. The first may be sailed 



the type, but the second always occurs with 

 it. There is another form of both these 

 varieties which occurs very rarely about 

 London, in which all the wings are dusted 

 over with minute black spots. Haworth 

 took this for another species and called it 

 Nigricaria. Aurantiaria does not vary much 

 except sometimes the dark band is extended 

 to the border like the second figure of 

 Pro^emmavia, which is rather a variable 

 insect. We have not often seen a variety 

 like the third figure ; the insect from which 

 it was taken was captured near Bradford. 

 The fourth male and the left hand female 

 are the variety we have called Fiiscata ; it is 

 not uncommon in the north of England, but 

 we believe not in the south. We recently 

 sent specimens to several eminent entomo- 

 logists in the south and they said they had 

 not seen the form before. The charac- 

 teristics of this variety are that the fore 

 wings are unicolorous fuscous brown ; the 

 band on the hind wing and the black dots 

 round the margins of all the wings are 

 entirely wanting. 



//. defoliaria is the most variable of the 

 whole genus, and we have given upon pi. 3 

 figures of eight of the most striking forms. 

 Those that have the plates coloured will see 

 that the insect varies in tint as well as 

 markings. Fig. 3 is a very beautiful form : 

 it is taken in several districts, but we have 

 seen none so clear as those we have received 

 from Bradford. Fig. 7 is a very striking 

 form, and is one of those distinct recurrences 

 which should be known by some distinctive 

 name. It has been figured by Newman, 

 but we are not aware that a name has yet 

 been bestowed upon it, so we must content 

 ourselves with calling it thedarkunicolorous- 

 formof defoliaria, but think a shorter name 

 would be better. All the specimens figured 

 on pi. 3 were taken in the Bradford district, 

 and have been kindly supplied or lent for 

 figuring by our friend, Mr. J. W. Carter, 

 and others. 



