VARIATION 
199 
Varieties of Smerinthus tili^, Pararge meg^r\ and Hepialus 
HUMULi. — The following varieties are in the possession of Mr. Edwin 
Gray, of Newstead, Bedford, and are I think worthy of notice, (i). A 
male specimen of Smerinthus having the olive-green cross bar 
and border of the upper wings replaced by a pale buff colour, the 
rest of the wings being paler than the ordinary form, with the usual 
amount of black scales. The hind wings very pale with a buff margin 
and yellow fringe. Thorax grey and very light olive, abdomen grey. 
The specimen was caught on a doorstep in Bedford last June. (2). 
A male specimen of Pararge ?negcera^ having the ground colour of the 
upper wings replaced by white inclining to tawny-fulvous where it meets 
the smoky-brown markings, which are normal as are the hind wings. 
This white is of the same kind as sometimes appears in varieties of 
Epinephele jafiira, giving them a bleached appearance. This specimen 
was caught at Cromer in the middle of the present month. (3). A 
female of Hepialus humuli having the fringe and margin of the under 
wings bright orange and a pale shade of the same colour being diffused 
all over them, most intense on the under side where it is also present 
on the fore wings, though the upper side of the latter is normal ; thorax 
orange. This variety was taken this season at Cromer. — D. H. Steuart, 
Red Court, Bedford. August 2<^th, 1891. [This latter is not at all an 
uncommon form. — E d.] 
Varieties of ZvGiENA trifolii. — Mr. Abbott is wrong {E??t. Pec., 
ii., p. 155) when writing of the var. of Z. trifolii. It is the type that 
has the second pair of spots coalesced ; var. orobi, Hb. has the same 
pair of spots distinct. The other vars. are as follows : — var. filipejidulce, 
Hb., basal and central spots coalescing ; var. glycirrhizce, Hb., central 
and terminal spots coalescing ; var. basalis, all the spots united 
by a line of red of uneven width ; var. 7 iiinoides, all the spots 
united into a large blotch occupying all the disc. These are all 
narrow-bordered varieties. There are also thinly scaled varieties, 
varieties with ill-defined or fully-developed sixth spot, and a yellow 
variety (lutescens). — Sydney Webb, Dover. Septe? 7 iber, 1891. [Dr. 
Staudinger unites glycirrhizce and filipendulce, Hb.-Gey. under the name 
of confluens and writes : — “ mac. omnibus confluentibus,” so that he 
would use but one name for these, together with basalis and ??iinoides, 
a much less satisfactory division than Mr. Webb’s. He also gives : — 
orobi, Hb. 133, mac. mediis separatis ; var. syracusia, Zell, minor, al. 
ant. maculis parvis, disjunctis, post, margine lato nigro.” This latter 
var. comes from ; — “ Sicily, Spain and Mauritania (N.W. Africa),’’ but 
we get this small form in England. Var. dubia, Stdgr. Cat., p. 21 = 
transalpina, lAb. = medicagmis, L,di.= cliaj'on Bois., described as: — “var. 
major, al. ant. macul. 5 vel 6, al. post, latius nigris.” This form, which 
we also get, is recorded from the “ Alps, Pyrenees and doubtfully 
from Greece” (Staudinger, Catalog, p. 47). — Ed.] 
In Messrs. Abbott and Hodges’ notes on the Zygcence, they both 
speak of the yellow variety of Z. filipendulce, and the blotched or barred 
form of Z. trifolii. I have not had any experience of Z. filipendulce 
this year, but in an old and disused brickfield at Gamlingay, on July 
1 6th last, I found Z. trifolii in great abundance, although somewhat 
difficult to obtain, as it is an excessively wet and sloppy place, and what 
with water up to the shoe tops, and herbage up to the waist, one might 
