The Moths of the British Isles/Appendix

APPENDIX.

Page 28. Herse Convolvuli.—Reported from several English counties, August and September, 1911, and again in 1915. In 1917 the species seems to have been more widely spread over our islands, specimens being recorded from Ireland and Shetland.

Page 41. Phryxus Livornica.—Further records are: In July, 1909, a dead male specimen was found under an electric light standard at Exeter, and one was noted on a bowling green at Blackpool in October. Specimens were recorded from Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Devon, and Cornwall in 1911. On January 19, 1912, a male was taken from a shrub in a garden at Tavistock. Thirty-five were captured in South Cornwall between May 9 and 23 of the same year, and single specimens were reported from North Wales, Norfolk, Dorset, also in May.

Page 47. Daphnis Nerii.—Further records: Ilfracombe, September 22, 1909; Sydenham, September 24, 1910; Eastbourne (August 15), Ashford, 1911; Folkestone, August 30, 1916, on trunk of poplar tree; Littleover, Derbyshire, in a conservatory, August 18, 1917; Dovercourt, Essex, September, 1919.

Page 141. Nola Confusalis.—A grey form of this species, ab. columbina, Image, has been recorded from Epping Forest.

Page 146. Sarrothripa Revayana.—A number of forms of this species are named and described by Mr. Sheldon in the Entomologist for 1919.

Page 268. Luperina gueneei.—Over thirty years ago the late Mr. Baxter, of St. Anne's, Lancashire, sent me a specimen of Luperina that he had captured in his district. This I considered to be a form connecting gueneei with nickerlii, and that both were forms of L. testacea. Since that time gueneei has been found in some numbers on the Lancs. coast, and has been recognized as a distinct species, and its identity with nickerlii established.

The earlier published history of this species in Britain may here be quoted: "The late Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson, in a note on Luperina gueneei, published in the Entomologist for 1885, vol. 54, wrote:—'In 1860 or 1861, T. Porter (still living) brought me two fine specimens of a moth I did not know. They were of both sexes. I purchased them from him, and sent them on to the Rev. H. Burney, who forwarded them to Henry Doubleday. From him they went to Guenée, and he returned them with the remark that he had a specimen in his collection marked as a variety of L. testacea, but he was quite satisfied they represented a good species when he saw both sexes. H. Doubleday then named them after Guenée, as the latter was evidently the original captor. I saw Porter again, and he told me another man, by name H. Stephenson, had one. They took three in all near the ferry at Rhyl, North Wales. I sent Porter again, and went myself, but we failed to find more afterwards. I bought the specimen from Stephenson, and sent it to Miss Sulivan, of Fulham, where, I suppose, it remains. I think it was a female.'"

According to Barrett (British Lepidoptera, IV., p. 335), the three North Wales specimens" were raked from overhanging edges of sandhills."

Page 294. Hydrœcia crinanensis.

"Hydrœcia crinanensis, Burrows. Larger than H. nictitans. F.-w. slightly pointed at the apex, bright red-brown, longitudinal and transverse lines very distinct, fringes concolorous. Orbicular stigma, lighter than the ground colour. Reniform stigma orange, full, fairly straight edged inwardly, lower lobe projecting outwardly, interior lines faint. H.-w. red-brown, darker towards the outer margin; fringes yellow, the yellow colour intruding in dots upon the darker margin.

"Type specimen taken by Mr. A. W. Bacot at Crinan Canal, September, 1899."

The above is extracted from an instructive paper by the Rev. C. R. N. Burrows, entitled, "On the nictitans group of the genus Hydrœcia, Gn.," published in the Transactions of the Entomological Society, 1911, pp. 738-749, plates li.-lviii. In this paper specific rank is also claimed for lucens, Frr., and paludis, Tutt, both of which have been considered as merely forms of H. nictitans, L.

H. crinanensis has been recorded from Inveran, Crinan Canal, Aberfeldy, and Liddelbank, in Scotland; from Lough Foyle and Enniskillen, in Ireland; and from Bolton and Burnley, in England.

Page 298. Nonagria neurica.—In 1907, when the first edition of this volume was published, the fact of N. neurica being a British species was not truly ascertained. In the following year, however, some specimens of Nonagria, which were not identical with N. dissoluta, Treit. = arundineata, Schmidt, were named edelsteni, Tutt.

Quite a number of N. edelsteni were obtained by Messrs. Wightman and Sharp in the Cuckmere Valley of Sussex, July, 1908.

At a meeting of the Entomological Society of London, held on November 4, 1908, a series of bred edelsteni from Sussex was exhibited by Mr. Edelsten.

By a consensus of opinion among entomologists, Sussex specimens are now considered to be true British representatives of neurica, Hubn., Fig. 381.

Page 332. Peucephila Essoni, Hamps.—On July 12, 1909, Mr. Esson, of Aberdeen, captured a specimen of a noctuid moth at sugar on a fir tree. This he sent to me for identification. As the insect was a novelty to me, it was submitted to Sir George F. Hampson, who, finding that the moth was not only a species new to science, but not even congeneric with any other noctuid, described and figured it as indicated on page 332 of this volume.

Although keenly searched for, no other example of the species had been detected up to the end of 1919.