49 
aberration cjornensis, F. A. Walker, of which I possess the original 
types from Reykjavik and Dyrafjord, and which were vaguely described 
as “ intermediate between the ordinary marmorata and the thinf/vallata 
of Staudinger.” I have one example taken by myself at Brendon, 
north Devon, Avhich also belongs here, though again just a trifle less 
extreme than typical ab. cjornensis. Hulst (Knt. News, vi., p. 42) 
refers his Californian atrifasciata (originally described as a Cleora !!) 
to “ var. thing mllata” though about twice as large; Dyar (List. N. 
Amer. hep., p. 281) makes it a synonym of the ordinary “ innnanata ” 
form. Hulst’s type specimen is figured by Holland ( Moth Booh, p. 
344, pi. xliv., fig. 8), still as a Cleora, but Grossbeck has a note on it 
in the latest part of the “ Transactions of the American Entomological 
Society,” xxxiii. p. 338, in which he shows that Hulst later mixed it 
with Kostroma nubilata, Pack., and that it really belongs to that genus, 
though a valid species, and therefore “ has nothing to do with imman- 
ata." Holland’s figure shows a large Larentiid of the “recurrent 
phase of variation,” to which belong Cidaria citrata ab. thimjcallata, 
Lam/iropteryx suff'nmata ab. porrittii, etc., hence 1 should suspect it 
would prove an aberration of some known species. 
The other named form erected by Staudinger, in 1871, on his Ice¬ 
land material, ab. imicolorata, was one of the most ludicrous experi¬ 
ments in varietal nomenclature with which I am acquainted. In his 
original account of his journey, he had given (Stet. Knt. Zeit., xviii., 
p. 252) a very good analysis of the variation of Cidaria citrata in that 
country, making out eleven forms, as “ var. a ” to “ var. 1." Among 
these were : “ var. a. Alis anticis albido-cinereis ; ” “ var. e. Al. 
ant. concoloribus fuscis ; ” “var . h. Al. ant. ochraceis ; ” var. 1. Al. 
ant. nigricantibus.” Now in 1871 he lumps these four together as 
“ ab. imicolorata (al. ant. fere unicoloribus, albidis, griseis, fuscis vel 
nigris)” with the result that we have a name giving no clue to the 
character of a form. I, for one, cannot conceive that there is a closer 
relationship between a form that has lost nearly all its black scales 
and one that has developed melanism over the entire wing, than there 
is between the latter and a normal grey-banded form, or between the 
former and a light example of ab. piinctum-notata ( = marmorata, auctt.). 
Staudinger adds to his jumbled diagnosis a citation of “ Mill., loc. eit., 
fig. 10, transitus,” which is meant to refer to Milliere’s var. e, 
mentioned above (Ann. fa/on, 1859, pi. v., fig. 10), a weakly-marked, 
ochreous example, tinged a little greenish in the figure, though this is 
not mentioned in the text, and presumably intermediate between var. 
h of Staudinger, and his var. //, to be quoted later. I believe there is 
no alternative but to deal with the name ab. imicolorata in the same 
way in which all other composite names are treated, namely, to restrict 
it to one of its component parts. Perhaps the commonest unicolorous 
form would be the ochreous or reddish-tinted one, Staudinger’s original 
“ var. //,” but as that coloration is not included in the subsequent 
diagnosis, I propose to restrict the name to the first colour mentioned, 
the “whitish,” or “whitish-ashy” (originally var. a)C and to give 
* The best type of this would be the specimen described in detail by Staudinger. 
loc. eit., pp. 253-4, a “female quite fresh, almost entirely silver-white, only show¬ 
ing a faint yellowish tint in the neighbourhood of the intermediate band, and 
where the terminal band would begin.” 
xviii. 
