1889.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



59 



and to the present time seventy of the type. Mr. Turner, light forms of Zygana 

 filipendulce from Reigate. Mr. C. A. Briggs, specimens of Triphoena comes and T.pro- 

 nuba from various localities. Mr. Weir, three male and three female specimens of 

 a butterfly he had received from the Falkland Islands. They were of the same 

 genus as our well-known Brenthis selene and B. euphrosyne, and were apparently closely 

 allied to the Chilian B. anna. Mr. Weir stated that he had not yet been able to 

 make the necessary references, but he was at present disposed to regard them as a 

 species new to science, and if upon future examination he found his view correct, he 

 proposed for them the name of Brenthis Falklandica. He thought the specimens were 

 sexes of the same species, although the shape of the upper wings differed materially, 

 and the difference in the colouration of the underside of the underwings was con- 

 siderable, but on the other hand he could detect no difference in the distribution of 

 the colour on the upperside of either of the upper or lower wings. It was interest- 

 ing that palearctic and nearctic genera of lepidoptera reappeared at the southern part 

 of South America, which were quite unknown over a vast extent of the intermediate 

 latitudes. But it should be borne in mind, that there was in the American con- 

 tinents an almost continuous chain of mountains from the Arctic Ocean to the Straits 

 Magellan, which might have formed a connected temperate region, by which the 

 migration of species from the north to the south was effected at a time when the 

 temperature of the earth was different to that which now obtains. Mr. Carrington, 

 parasites from larva of Acronycta alni. Mr. Tugwell, on behalf of Mr. Porritt, two 

 very dark specimens of Boarmia repandata. Mr. Weir read a letter from Dr. Rendall, 

 who is now resident at Bathurst, Gambia. Observations were made upon a reported 

 case of stridulation by a species of Vanessa, and a discussion ensued. — H. W. Bar- 

 ker, Hon. Secretary. 



Our Pterophori. 



By C. A. BRIGGS, F.E.S. 



Our Plumes have been got into such a maze of confusion and un- 

 certainty from hasty assertions, tardy corrections, and assumptions 

 from insufficient data, that the only thing that would seem to be con- 

 sidered clear, is that we know more about the Continental species 

 which we do not catch, than is known by the Continental entomologists 

 who see them in every stage, and certainly more than we do about 

 our own species. 



This confusion is particularly marked with regard to those three 

 groups of Plumes, of which, so far as our species are concerned, 

 Teucrii, Bipunctidactylus, and Gonodactylns (or Trigonodactylus as we used 

 to call it), respectively form the central figures. 



As regards the first group, consisting of Distans, Lcetus, Pilosellce, 

 Hieracii, Teucrii, and Parvidactylus, the latter may be dismissed as 



