58 
THE entomologist’s RECORD. 
Nimbella is a decidedly variable species both in colour, size, and 
markings, — several different forms being sometimes bred together from 
the very same batch of larvae — and the specimens which occur in 
Britain seem for the most part either to be, or to approach the variety 
saxicola, or else to be intermediate between that and the type. 
Although I have not seen the original specimens of nwibella in the 
late Professor Zeller’s collection, I have been fortunate enough to see 
those from which Mr. Howard Vaughan described saxicola, but failed 
to find any reliable distinction between them and nhnbella. 
It is very surprising that in the published notices of saxicola we find 
no full and careful comparison betw'een it and nimbella, and no attempt 
to differentiate them satisfactorily. In his original description of 
saxicola in Ent. Mo. Mag., vii., p. 132, Mr. Howard Vaughan merely 
says : “ This species is closely allied to H. nimbella^^ and then proceeds 
to separate it from se 7 iecionis {X), whilst in Mr. J. H. Leech’s British 
Fyralides we only read “ This species differs from nimbella in the 
longer and narrower fore-wings, the costal streak, and the more con- 
spicuous longitudinal white lines,” — all of which characters, it may be 
observed, differ considerably in individual specimens of nimbella. It 
should be noticed that in Stainton’s Manual, ii., p. 169, the expanse of 
nimbella is given as 7-8 lines, which is the exact size of saxicola as given 
by Mr. H. Vaughan; the insect therefore, as a general rule, runs rather 
larger in all its varieties in Britain than on the Continent. 
The foodplants of nimbella and saxicola are the same, and to the 
best of my belief no real differences have ever been shown to exist 
between the larvae ; in fact, the only description (if it may be so called) 
of the larva of saxicola which I can find, is in E.M.M, vi\, p. 132, 
where Mr. Howard Vaughan says: “The larva, as well as I can 
remember, was short, obese, and greenish, with darker blotches on the 
back ” ; and this would of course apply equally well to the larva of 
nimbella. 
I certainly know of no reliable specific distmctions between the perfect 
insects, but if anyone can show any such to exist between nimbella and 
saxicola in either or both stages, he will do good service by making 
them known ; till then, however, there seems to be no reason for 
refusing to accept the conclusion arrived at by Mons. Ragonot that they 
are merely different forms of the same species. — Eustace R. Bankes, 
The Rectory, Corfe Castle. April /^th, 1891. 
Arctia lubricipeda VARS. — It is stated that between i860 and 1870, 
vars. of A. lubricipeda in which the dots tended to form longitudinal 
lines, only occurred in a timber yard which has since been destroyed. 
From my own knowledge I cannot prove or refute this statement, it 
is too far back for me ; but my friend, Mr. Jackson, tells me that long 
before this date he took it in gardens, timber yards, etc., pretty well all 
round York. The variety is by no means common. At a rough guess 
I should say that it averages about one var. in every hundred, although 
in some years it varies much more than others ; last year was excep- 
tionally bad. I have never heard of the true var. radiata as figured 
in the Eiitomologist for August, 1874, p. 169, having been taken at 
York. — G. C. Dennis, Tower Street, York. 
Variation of Catoptria ulicetana. — The majority of the specimens 
of Catoptria iclicetana that have come under my notice (and it is an 
