90 
l J . Geometra seticornis, alis omnibus nigris albo maculatis 
fasciis duobus albis immaoulatis bastato dentatis.” 
Clerck in the following year figured (Icon. Ins. Bar., pi. i. , fig. 9) 
the same form which Linne had described, and Linne himself in his 
later works somewhat amplified his descriptions. His type specimen 
still exists in his collection, now in the possession of the Linmean 
Society, and is of a form nearest some of my Yorkshire ones, or one 
from AVismar, in that the central fascia is divided by a longitudinal 
white line, and its outer half interrupted again with white near the 
inner margin. 
The larva of B. hastata was well known to some of the old masters, 
and is described and figured by Degeer ( Memoires , ii., pp. 455-7, pi. 
viii., fig. 19) and Kleemann (. Beytrdge , pp. 369-72, pi. xliv., fig. 1-4), 
and figured by Hiibner (Geschichte, Geom. Aequiv. I. b., fig. 1 a , b). 
They all give it on birch only, in the spun-together leaves of which it 
so generally lives in Central Europe, etc. Kleemann ( loc. cit., fig. 
7, 8) figures the large typical form of the imago (fig. 7, indeed, quite 
abnormally large, measuring about 2 inches), Degeer (loc. cit., fig. 20) 
a smaller form with the black a little more consolidated and with 
strong black dots in the white band, i.e., a more intermediate form, 
but certainly not the genuine var. subhastata. As to the larva, it is 
very variable in colour (compare Ratzeburg, Waldverderb., ii., p. 408, 
pi. iii., fig. 10), and on this account one would hesitate to give much 
importance to mere colour in differentiating those of subhastata or 
even of thulearia. As regards foodplants, Sandberg (Ent. Tid., v., 
p. 143) says that the larva of var. subhastata is practically polyphagous, 
but it has long been known that its favourite pabulum is Yaccimum, 
pre-eminently V. iiliginosum (Stgr., Stctt. Ent. Zeit., xxii., p. 398; 
Hoffm., ibid., xlix., p. 175; Schneid., Trows. Mas. Aarsh., xv., 
p. 85 ; etc.) but also sometimes V. myrtillus (Zell., Stctt. Ent. 
Zeit.., xxxviii., p. 468, as “ hast aria ,” but Schneider, Ent. Tid., vii., 
P- 251, would see in this subhastata; Krieghoff, Mitt. Geog. Ges. Thur., 
iii., p. 167; etc.) ; and it is equally well known that it does not 
despise birch where this is obtainable in its haunts, nor do the various 
Salices come amiss to it (see Sandb., loc. cit., Schneid., Trows. Mas. 
Aarsh., xv., p. 85). Rossler (Jahrb. Mass. Ver. Eat., xxxiii.-xxxiv., 
p. 154) says “ also on whortleberry ” for the type from hastata, 
peihaps on the strength of Zeller s record for Ober-Albula just cited 
above ; at any rate Hoffmann (loc. cit. supra ) explicitly states that he 
has never found a I acciniuw larva produce any but the subhastata 
forms. Newman (Brit. Moths, p. 157) gives Myrica gale, in addition 
to birch, as a foodplant of hastata, and I have been given to under¬ 
stand that this record referred to our Scotch forms of var. subhastata, 
but I have not been able to trace the reference further, though it 
appears to be confirmed by McArthur’s experience in the Outer 
Hebrides (South, Entow., xxv., p. 88). Richter, in one of the old 
local lists (for Dessau, Stett. Ent. Zeit., x., p. 107), has an absurd 
note that he first found the larva on Salix aurita, and aftenvards in 
his garden on Bribes sanguineuw. and Bhododendron lauricum. I cannot 
take this seriously, and can only suppose that he did not know Spilote 
giossulariata, or some other species, from Bheumaptera hastata! 
The range of this species is rather extensive. Staudinger gives (if 
we include gothicata and the var. subhastata ) practically the whole of 
