234 



LT.-COL. J. M. FAWCETT ON 



P. Z. S. 1915, has evoked a certain amount of criticism, and 

 that from a quarter from which I did not expect it, as one of the 

 writers was good enough to help me in the thankless task of 

 working out my specimens amongst the vast material in the 

 British Museum Collection, and to agree with me at the time in 

 the conclusions I arrived at. 



These criticisms refer to my descriptions of what I consider as 

 new forms of Sphingidre, and I would remark that until the pre- 

 liminary stages and life-history of the specimens are known (and 

 we are still in ignorance of them), I do not see how anyone, 

 even the highest authority on the subject, can say as an absolute 

 fact that such a specific name is a synonym of one already 

 described. Such an assertion is merely a matter of opinion. 

 In any case, it is desirable that undescribed forms from an 

 extensive country like British East Africa, which has not been 

 worked out to any great extent, should receive names in these 

 days, when the Lepidoptera of each separate island in the 

 Eastern Archipelago are being given distinct names as geo- 

 graphical forms — even when obviously belonging to well-known 

 previously described species. The reader has only to refer 

 to Seitz, ^Macrolepidoptera of the World,' to verify what I say. 

 In making the above remarks I do not, for a moment, deprecate 

 criticism ; on the contrary, it is most interesting to me to read 

 it, and, as I am a correspondent to the press on sporting subjects 

 dining the winter months, I get my fair share of it. 



The figures in the accompanying plate are drawn by myself to 

 represent the exact size. In this memoir B. M. stands for 

 British Museum, and C. L. P. for ' Catalogue of the Lepidoptera 

 Phakena?,' by Sir George Hampson. 



My best thanks are due to Lord Rothschild, Mr. Louis Prout, 

 and Mr. J. H. Durrant, for their kindness and ever ready help 

 in the British Museum. 



HETEHOCEKA. 



Family Syntomid^e. 



249. Syntomis polyxo, sp. n. (PI. I. fig. 10.) 



Description. — <S . Black, shot with coppery suffusion in certain 

 lights. Antennae black with white tips ; irons orange-yellow ; 

 collar black ; patagia with orange-yellow stripes ; metathorax 

 with an orange patch ; abdomen black, with six yellow bands; 

 Pore wing with the following white diaphanous spots : — one 

 below base of cell ; an oblique diamond-shaped ^pot below middle 

 of cell and vein 2 ; a spot in end of cell ; an elongate spot above 

 vein 6, and two spots between veins 3 and 5. Hind wing with a 

 large basal spot between median nervure and inner margin, and 

 a smaller one beyond end of cell, above vein 3. 



The plan of markings is similar to that of S. humeralis Butler, 

 from North Australia (C. L. P. i. pi. ii. fig. 15, p. 63); but this 



