1889] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



slightly browned, but the tarsi are spotless whitish ; in dichrodactylus 

 the tibiae are brown at the middle and apex, and there is a brown spot 

 at the end of the first tarsal joint. These three spots have, in bred 

 specimens, a very conspicuous appearance." Dr. Jordan, " Entomo- 

 logist's Monthly Magazine," Vol. XVIII., p. 75, writes : — " As to the 

 identity of ochrodactylus and bertrami, I confess myself quite unable to 

 give a decided opinion, there seems to me no distinct line between the 

 richly fawn-yellow specimens with falcate wings, and the pale straw 

 coloured insects with the apex as square as in gonodactylus, the extremes 

 of the series look most distinct, but the gradations are such as to 

 make it very difficult to draw the boundary line." Dr. Jordan then 

 quotes Mr. Stainton's distinctions as given above, and then goes on to 

 say : — " Heinemann in the " Die Schmetterlinge Deutschlands, &c," 

 Vol. II., p. 784, draws the following distinctions : ' Very close to the 

 former species (ochrodactyla), but the fore- wings .less sharply pointed, 

 all the brownish-red dusting paler, the spots before the division pale, 

 often entirely wanting, the lines at the hind border finer ; on the third 

 feather of the hind-wing the black scales behind the middle are either 

 less or wanting. The legs are yellowish-white, the tibiae of the fore- 

 legs are brown at the end, in the hind tibiae the reddish brown colour 

 is equally spread from the middle to the end. It is widely diffused, 

 the larva lives in Achillea ptarmica and Tanacetum vulgare* " Dr. 

 Jordan then adds : — " These distinctions slight as they are, seem 

 certainly inconstant in apparently fine examples ; added to this Heine- 

 mann makes the food-plant of the larva doubtful, for he says of 

 ochrodactylus, 1 in the stem of Tanacetum vulgar e," of bertrami, as quoted 

 above, he says, in Achillea ptarmica and Tanacetum vulgare' " I have a 

 series of bred ochrodactyla, which I received from the late Mr. Sang, 

 and a long series of bertrami taken in many different localities, and 

 quite agree with Dr. Jordan that the superficial differential characters 

 are most inconstant. Dr. Jordan adds a most important note to his 

 article on this subject, p. 76. It is as follows : "There is now before 

 me a specimen of bertrami, bred by Lord Walsingham. The pupa 

 was found on a stem of Artemisia campestris (there was no Tanacetum* 

 near), which may prove therefore, to be another food-plant. It has 

 for bertrami, remarkably pointed wings." In answer to this suggestion 

 of Dr. Jordan's, owing to his references to the opinions of Lord 

 Walsingham and Professor Zeller, the late Mr. Sang wrote a most 

 interesting article differentiating bertrami and dichrodactylus, and 



■fc Achillea is the food-plant of bertrami not Tanacetum. 



