THE ENTOMOLOGIST.

VOL. XXIII.]

SEPTEMBER, 1890.

[No. 328.

ADDITIONS TO THE BRITISH LIST OF DELTOIDS, PYRALIDES, AND CRAMBI, SINCE 1859.

BY RICHARD SOUTH.

(PLATES III. & IV.)

SINCE the publication of the second volume of Stainton's 'Manual of British Butterflies and Moths,' in 1859, a large number of additions have been made to the British list; but in the present paper it is not proposed to do more than bring together the various Deltoids, Pyralides, and Crambi which have been introduced as British species since the year adverted to. Several of the insects brought forward as new to science have been, by a consensus of opinion, reduced to varietal rank; others have had their right and title to specific rank vigorously assailed; and it seems probable that their degradation, by common consent, is fast approaching, and that their fate will not be relegated to the dim and distant future to decide. The earliest English descriptions have been reprinted in the majority of cases, and the references to the British literature, though probably not exhaustive, will perhaps be of some service to those who may be interested in the matter. Two of the species had a place in our lists previous to 1859, but were not included in the Manual.'

To those gentlemen who, in the kindest way, have placed their valuable specimens at my disposal for figuring, I tender my most sincere thanks.

DELTOIDS.

HERMINIIDE.

ZANCLOGNATHA EMORTUALIS, Schiff. (Pl. III. fig. 1.)

BRITISH REFERENCES:

Polypogon emortualis, Steph. Cat. ii. p. 158 (1829).

Ethia emortualis, Steph. Ill. Brit. Ent. Haust. iv. p. 18 (1834).
ENTOM.-SEPT, 1890.

X

Sophronia emortualis, H. Cooke, Intell. v. p. 123 (1859); Stainton, Entom. Ann. 1860, p. 132; Birks, Intell. ix. p. 28 (1860); Doubl. List, p. 37.

Zanclognatha emortualis, South, Syn. List, p. 11; Leech, Brit. Pyral. p. 3, pl. i. fig. 8 (1886).

Expanse, 1 in. 3 lines. Light yellowish olive. The fore wings are traversed by two whitish lines, the first almost straight, the second curved and continued across the hind wings; between the lines on fore wings is a short whitish lunulated line.

DISTRIBUTION.-Central Europe; Sweden; Livonia; Piedmont; Dalmatia: Ural; Amur.

Note.-Stephens described this insect in 1834, but his description does not appear to be very accurate. He remarks, "A specimen is in the cabinet of W. Swainson, Esq.; and I possess one captured in Devonshire." Wood's figure (768) of emortualis, in the Westwood edition of the 'Index Entomologicus,' is suggestive of derivalis, rather than the species it is said to represent. Altogether there seems to have been some hesitation. on the part of British entomologists with regard to the right of emortualis to a place in our lists; and it was not until the year 1859 that anything further was heard of the species. In the year last mentioned, Mr. H. Cooke recorded and described a specimen. which had been taken by Mr. Pocock in Brighton, on the 18th of June, 1858. In the year following, the Rev. B. H. Birks, of Stonor, Henley-on-Thames, took a specimen at sugar on the 12th of July. These are the only records of the capture of this species in Britain that I can find.

HYPENIDE.

HYPENA OBSITALIS, Hübn. (Pl. IV. fig. 9.)

BRIT. REF.:

Hypena obsitalis, Cambridge, Entom. xvii. p. 265 (woodcut), (1884); P. Dors. N. H. S. vi. pl. iii.; Leech, Pyral. p. 7, pl. xiii. fig. 7 (1886).

Expanse, 1 in. 3 lines. Fore wings broad, pointed at the tips. Brown, with numerous fine transverse darker lines; beyond the middle is a thicker dark angulated line, edged externally with pale brown, especially near the costa; submarginal line represented by some minute white dots placed on the nervules, and there are some black longitudinal streaks below apex. The stigmata are black, but hardly well defined. Hind wings fuscous-brown, venation and central lunule darker.

Var. a.-Expanse, 1 in. 5 lines. Fore wings pale reddish brown, without fine transverse lines; the angulated line is preceded by a broad triangular blackish patch enclosing the stigmata; a smaller blackish patch on the outer margin below apex.

Larva bright yellowish green, with a dark dorsal and pale subdorsal lines. Feeds in May on Parietaria (pellitory), Leech. DISTRIBUTION.-Southern Europe; Carniola; N. W. Asia Minor; Cyprus; Syria; Armenia; Algiers and N. Morocco; Canaries; England.

Note. So far only one example of this species has occurred in Britain. This specimen, which is of the typical form, was found by the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge, on the 21st September, 1884, resting on a door-jamb in his garden at Bloxworth, Dorsetshire. The descriptions of the imago, given above, were taken from specimens captured by Mr. Leech at Mogador.

PYRALIDES.

PYRALIDIDÆ.

PYRALIS LIENIGIALIS, Zell. (Pl. IV. fig. 13.)

BRIT. REF.:

Pyralis lienigialis, Thompson, Entom. xiv. p. 84; Carrington, op. cit., p. 304, pl. i. fig. 21; South, Syn. List, p. 17; Leech, Brit. Pyral. p. 13, pl. vii. fig. 1.

Asopia lienigialis, Thompson, Barrett, and Stainton, Ent. Mo. Mag. xvii. p. 256.

Mr. Barrett (l. c.) finds that although some specimens of P. lienigialis may resemble P. farinalis in colour, the first whitish line of the former is "nearer the middle of the wing, the basal blotch being therefore larger and the median area smaller"; the second line commences as a pale blotch on the costa, and is more regularly curved than in farinalis. "In the hind wings the first delicate pale striga, which in farinalis forms a continuation of the first line on the fore wings, is, in lienigialis, placed more perpendicularly, so that it originates opposite the middle of the basal blotch of the fore wings."

DISTRIBUTION.-Livonia; Finland; England.

Note.-Captured at light in August, 1879, by Mr. Thompson, at Stoney Stratford, Bucks, and introduced by him in April, 1881. Other specimens were taken by Messrs. Thompson and Bryan; August and September, 1880.

SCOPARIA BASISTRIGALIS.

BRIT. REF.:

Scoparia basistrigalis, Knaggs, Ent. Mo. Mag. iii. p. 1 (woodcut); v. p. 293, pl. i. fig. 6; Briggs, Entom. xviii. p. 130; xx. p. 17; xxii. p. 17; Tutt and Briggs, E. M. M. xxvi. p. 51; Porritt, op. cit. p. 88; Entom. xii. p. 225; Doubl. List, Suppl. p. 2; South, Syn. List, p. 17; Leech, Brit. Pyral. p. 14, pl. xiv. fig. 4.

Expanse, 9-10 lines. "Fore wings in both sexes broad, of rhomboidal shape... ground colour clear greyish white, thickly sprinkled with numerous black atoms. Basal area with two short distinct black streaks passing from the base of the wing along the subcostal and median nervures respectively.... First line, commencing obliquely from the costa, passes backwards and inwards to the orbicular stigma, thence forwards and inwards to meet the claviform stigma, which is incorporated with (not detached from, as in some of the genus) this line, and finally, with an S-like bend, reaches the inner