172 The Scottish Naturalist. 



a reddish tinge. The orbicular and reniform stigmas show a 

 yellowish tinge. 



Mr. MacArthur writes me that he has caught even darker speci- 

 mens than those which he sent to me for examination. Flies in 

 August. 



* 12. Agrotis f estiva var. conflua Ti. (NoctuaJ c estiva var. 

 conflua Fr.) ; Stgr. Isl. ; Stgr. and Wk. Lap. ; Wk. Norv. Alp. ; Sch. 

 Fen.; Mosch. Latr.j Frey Alp.; Stdfs. Sil. Mont.; H. Here. 

 Mont. 



On the authority of Dr. Rossler, I place conflua as a variety of 

 /estiva. I saw eight specimens of this form from the Shetland 

 Islands, which were just as different from the conflua of Altvater, 

 of the Norwegian mountains and of Lapland, as they varied 

 greatly among themselves, especially in the colour. In the next 

 place, the Shetland form has narrower wings, and the point of the 

 upper wing is more prolonged. This does not appear 30 clearly 

 in the figures in the Entomologist, 1884 (plate 1, figs. 8, 9, and 10), 

 as it did in the specimens which I saw. In colour, they vary from 

 a dark gray-brown through red-brown to a reddish leather-yellow. 

 Time of flight is in July. 



According to Dr. Staudinger, very similar varieties appear in 

 Iceland. Dr. Rossler regards conflua as a mountain form of 

 festiva, because the eggs of conflua brought by Dr. v. Bodemeyer 

 to Wiessbaden produced festiva in all varieties, but no conflua. At 

 Dr. v. Bodemeyer's, I saw some of those specimens, which had 

 emerged as a second generation in late autumn, but which, in my 

 opinion, are more nearly related to the conflua than to the typical 

 festiva of our Lowlands. Dr. Rossler has certainly examined a great 

 number, and has formed his opinions upon them. Dr. Standfuss 

 writes to me that Dr. VVocke has also brought up a second genera- 

 tion of conflua from Altvater, which more or less form a transition 

 to festiva. This certainly speaks in favour of the near relationship 

 of the two forms ; in the wild state the distinctness of the forms is 

 always constant. 



From information kindly supplied by Dr. Standfuss, festiva alone 

 appears in the true Alps ; and he certainly found two larvae at a 

 height of over 4000 feet, and reared festiva from them, which did 

 not in the least differ from those of the Lowlands. 



Conflua is said never to have been caught or reared in the Alps; 

 while farther east upon the snow-covered mountains, and upon 



