182 



The Naturalist. 



vein beut at an obtuse angle and slightly curved inwards in its course 

 to the costa, which it reaches a little before the apex. — The female 

 fly is undescribed. 



Bradford, June 12th, 1879. 



[The parasite described above I bred from one of the larvae of A alni 

 sent to me from Wakefield by Mr. William Talbot, in Sept., 1877 

 (see Naturalist III., p. 40). One or two other specimens emerged 

 from the same larva, which I gave to Mr. S. L. Mosley, so 

 possibly there may be a female amongst them. — G. T. P.'] 



PERSISTENT VARIATION AMONG THE BRITISH 

 SPECIES OF BUTTERFLIES * 



By S. L. Mosley. 



\^ead before Members of the Hudclersjield Scientific Club, \%th April, 1879.] 



In the following paper I have simply gathered together information 

 which, so far as I am aware, has hitherto been scattered, at any rate 

 so far as the British species is concerned. On the continent of 

 Europe they pay a great deal more attention to persistent varieties 

 than we do in England ; perhaps they make rather too much of them 

 sometimes by giving names to varieties of very trivial importance — 

 scarcely distinguishable from their types. But on the other hand, 

 British collectors are too prone to pass over well-marked and distinct 

 forms as not being worth notice — at any rate, not worth having a 

 name given to them, and hitherto their very isolated ideas have pre- 

 cluded them from naming varieties in common with the continental 

 entomologists. What British lepidopterist, for instance, if asked if 

 he took Coenonympha Pamphilus, var. lyllus, in his district, could give 

 a satisfactory answer ? Yet, I presume, few collectors have not taken 

 this form of that very common insect, and numerous other similar 

 instances might be named. 



I think it well that we should know these well-marked and constant 

 varieties by a name wherewith to distinguish them from their respec- 

 tive types, and I think it important that these variations should be 

 better understood by British collectors. There is another variety of 



* For much valuable assistance in the preparation of this paper I am indebted to 

 Mr. J. E. Robson, of Hartlepool, who is preparing a catalogue of all persistent 

 varieties found in Europe. Either Mr, Eobson or myself would be glad of any 

 information touching the occurrence and distribution of these varieties in Britain ; 

 also particulars of local forms, &c. 



