64 
is occasionally met with on the Continent and is well-known to me, 
and this way be the form intended by Kitt, though I was not aware 
that it was confined to Pinas cembra or anywhere localized. If they 
be identical, Kitt’s name must fall, for this aberration has already 
been twice named, though neither name is quoted in Staudinger s 
“ Catalogue" which, with many German lepidopterists, seems to be the 
only work of reference. In 1890, Gumppenberg (‘-Nora Acta Ac. 
Leo/).,” liv., 440), named it ab. (?) niyrofasciata, merely diagnosing it 
as “area media nigra,” but referring also to Rossler, who writes 
(“ J.B. Nim. Ver., xxxiii.-xxxiv., 154) : “ a variety with black central 
band, while the rest of the forewing is grey-white or wood-colour.” 
And in 1898, Reutti (“ Ley. Baden," ed. 2, p. 135), overlooking Gump¬ 
penberg, re-named it ab. medionigr icons — “ brownish white with 
unicolorous blackish central band.” The words pure grey without 
admixture of brownish, prevent my sinking Kitt’s name without further 
information, and as he only says of the median area “ darkened, it 
may not be so black as in ab. niyrofasciata. 
A more extreme development of ab. niyrofasciata = mediomyncans 
is the long known ab. strayulata, Hb . = citiosata, Frr . = resinana, Peyer. 
= .s traiu/ulata, Tutt (in err.). In this the central band is reduced to a. 
costal patch, about as in the S. English forms of Plemyria bicolorata 
( rubi/jinata ), the coloration remaining about as in ab. niyrofasciata. 
Occasionally liiibner’s name is made to cover both the forms which 
show this coloration. 
Our British forms appear to be on an average rather darker than 
the continental and we have at present obtained nothing — so far as I 
know—approaching the aberrations stray ulata and niyrofasciata, unless 
“ two with dark band ” mentioned to me (in lift.) by Major Robertson 
have also the light ground colour which would bring them here. But 
our opportunities for acquainting ourselves with its range of possible 
variation in Britain have, naturally, not been very great hitherto. 
Thera obeliscata (Hb.). 
This species was first figured by Hiibner in his “ Beitrdye ” (1787) 
and again in the “ Sammluny" (1796?) ; but in the latter (fig. 296) he 
gives a very rare aberration, and the former, of course, stands as the 
type of the species. It is probably because our early English authors 
studied the latter work rather than the former that they failed to 
recognise obeliscata and made havoc of the synonymy of such a com¬ 
mon species. Haworth seems to have led off in his “ Prodromus by 
calling it juniperata. In 1808 Donovan (“ Nat. Hist. Brit. Ins.," xiii., 
60, pi. 461, fig. 2) figures as tristrigaria an aberration with unusually 
well developed elongate, dark, submarginal, interneural streaks be¬ 
tween the 5th subcostal and the 3rd radial. I have seen an example 
from Derry which approaches it. In a paper read before the old 
Entomological Society on January 3rd, 1809, Hatchett introduces a 
Phalamena variata as new to Britain—unless, as his friend Haworth 
thinks, this is the “ Shaded Broard Bar ” of Harris. An account and 
figure of this variata are given in the Transactions of the Society, 
part 2 (p. 244, pi. 7, fig. 3, 1809 [not 1812, as given by Hagen and 
Staudinger, the date of part 3, completing the volume]). And in the 
xxii.-xxiii. 
