188 



THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



THE NEW FOREST ZYG^NA MELILOTI. 



By C. A. BRIGGS. 



I trust that I may be excused for a few further remarks in closing this 

 discussion. 



I cannot agree with Mr. Tugwell as to the unimportance of his mistake. 

 Quotations should always be accurate, but more particularly so when they 

 involve one of the points under discussion. 



Whatever Mr. Doubleday may have said or done privately can only be 

 partly ascertained now, but it is perfectly clear from his published note that 

 at that time he was entirely unaware, how greatly Boisduval' s description 

 differed from Esper's, and, being solely guided by the former; he was led into 

 assuming that our insect was Meliloti, Esp,, and his assumption has been 

 followed by most English entomologists without any further investigation. 

 Probably the real solution of the difficulty is that all the various so-called 

 Meliloti are, like our own insect, merely forms of Trifolii. 



The name Meliloti was first introduced into our lists on the authority of 

 Mr. J. F. Stephens, on the strength of the specimens taken by him in West 

 Horsley Park, Surrey, in 1826. These specimens he, in the " Illustrations/' 

 Vol. I. page 107, calls Meliloti, Ochs. ; and, as we find from Westwood's 

 "British Moths and their Transformations," Vol. I, page 31, they were 

 found to be so on comparison with German specimens brought over by Dr. 

 Becker, of Wiesbaden. Mr. Stephens' types are in the British Museum, and 

 not only are clearly Trifolii, but have each pair of spots confluent. 



Meliloti, Hubner, we learn from "The Annual," 1873, p. 41, is a variety 

 of Z. carniolica, and one of his figures (Table 17, fig. 82) which Boisduval 

 and Staudinger refer to Meliloti, Esp., shews a very richly coloured, almost 

 black Zygana, with a narrow border to the hind-wings, and the middle pair 

 of spots small and wide apart, the upper middle spot on one wing being 

 round, and on the other long. 



Meliloti, Boisduval, as he tells us in " Monographic," p. 51, can easily 

 be distinguished by the cut of its wings, which are much more pointed (than 

 Trifolii), and by the middle spot next the costa, which is always long and 

 separate. 



Our own insect has very round wings, and the upper middle spot some- 

 times round, sometimes oval, and the border sometimes broad and sometimes 

 narrow. 



Meliloti, Esper, is described as having five round spots. He figures three 

 {specimens, male and female, and a variety. The male and female are a much 



