Z THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECOED. 



on the underside, of which there were a few examples in Mazzola's and 

 his own collections under this name, and which came from the Rhine 

 district. Later, Ave received from thence some very much darker 

 moths, marked on the underside, under the name A T . dissolute* They 

 agreed exactly with Hubner's figs. G59-661. It therefore seemed 

 certain that Hiibner had repeated the name neurica by mistake, 

 whereas dissoluta should have been given instead. Further consign- 

 ments have, since then, conclusively proved that Hiibner was right to 

 call all the forms neurica, whether marked above, dark or light, and 

 underneath with or without black markings ; all are connected by 

 the slightest gradations, and, furthermore, it confirmed what had 

 already been said about the variability of this plain-looking creature. 

 Neurica varies in tone from reed-coloured to the deepest yellowish 

 dark-brown, as do also paludicola (c/eminipuncta), typhae, and others. 

 The head and thorax are coloured like the forewings, the abdomen is 

 lighter, inclining towards grey, that of the $ especially long and 

 slender, with yellowish-brown anal tuft. The antenna? are bright 

 yellow, fine, serrate in the $ . Legs brown-yellow. The forewings 

 are short, broad, pointed at the apex. They vary as mentioned, so 

 much so that the intermediate form connecting the two varieties has 

 lighter and darker parts. On all which are not quite without marks, 

 the broad outer margin is the lightest, and without the black specks 

 which irregularly cover the other parts. The median vein is white 

 longitudinally, bordered with black. Beyond the middle of the wing 

 is a black dot with white bordering which is sometimes formed like a 

 figure 3, very rarely with no margin. Before the outer margin 

 a more or less defined double row of dots crosses the vein ; there are 

 two dots next to the inner margin, and there is a row of black and 

 white streaks in the other part of the shaded band where the wings 

 usually become darkest as far as the fringes. These are bordered 

 with clear black dots, otherwise lighter than the ground colour and 

 simple. The hindwings are yellowish-white towards the base, more 

 or less dusted with grey posteriorly, with the lunules and smaller 

 lunular marks as a border to the whitish fringes. The underside is 

 yellowish, grey dusted, sometimes unmarked, sometimes with central 

 spots and dots before the fringes, often also with a curved line and a 

 shade almost forming a band before it. The larva is dirty-white with 

 pale red back, lives in the interior of the reeds, and changes in June or 

 July to a pupa, head downwards. The moth appears in four weeks 

 (according to information from Herr Hess, of Darmstadt). In mode 

 of living and changing it resembles the following species, paludicola 

 [geminipuncta). I only know the district of Darmstadt as its habitat, 

 and there the moth is rather rare." 



•Duponchel described and figured (Papillons tie France, vii., pt. 

 1, p. 85, pi. 10G, fig. 2), as neurica, the var. arundineta, Schmidt. 

 He writes : " The forewings are pale grey-yellowish above, finely 

 dusted with brown, with the two or three middle nervures white, 

 central spot blackish, surrounded with white, and two trans- 

 verse rows of dots equally blackish, one of which separates 

 the fringe from the outer margin, and the other is placed at an 

 equal distance from this same margin and the central spot above 

 mentioned. The dots of this last row rest on the little lines which 

 correspond with the nervures. The fringe is simple and of the same 



