2()8 THE entomologist's record. 



Rev. Ur. Walker exhibited a few Noctua conflua, illustrating the varied 

 f( rms of this species occurring in Iceland; and Dr. Mason said that 

 the only British specimens oi N. conflua which he had seen resembling 

 the Iceland form of the species were taken at Wolsingham, Durham " 

 ( Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1890, p. xxxvii.). I believe that these two 

 references apply to the same specimens, although the county is named 

 differently in each by Dr. Mason. It appears, too, that the Wolsingham 

 specimens only " resembled " the Icelandic conflua, which is the nearest 

 statement I can make of British (except Shetlandic) specimens. So 

 far, I believe we have never obtained the true conflua on the mainland 

 of Great Britain. Concerning the conflua. from Shetland, Herr Hoffmann 

 writes : — '' On the authority of Dr. Rossler, I consider conflua a var. of 

 festiva. I saw eight specimens of conflua from the Shetland Isles, 

 which differ as much from the conflua of Altvater from the mountains 

 of Norway and Lapland, as they vary among themselves, at least in 

 colour. First the Shetland form has narrower wings, and the fore 

 wings have the apex more pointed, although this is not shown in the 

 figs, in the Entomologist, 1884, plate i, figs. 8, 9, 10. In colour, they 

 vary from dark grey-brown to reddish-brown and to a reddish-ochreous. 

 In Iceland, according to Staudinger, quite similar forms occur. Dr. 

 Rossler considers conflua the mountain form oi festiva ; whilst ova of 

 conflua, brought by Dr. Bodemeycr from the Silesian mountains, 

 produced, in Wiesbaden, only festiva in all its varieties, but no co?iflua. 

 Part of these, which came out late in the autumn as a second brood, 

 were found to come nearer to conflua than to the typical festiva of 

 our fiat country. Dr. Rossler has probably tried a large number, and 

 formed his opinion accordingly. Dr. Staudfuss writes to me ■ — ' Dr. 

 Wocke has likewise reared a second brood from Altvater, which, more 

 or less forms an approach \o festiva.'' According to Dr. Staudfuss, _;^.y//7'« 

 occurs only in the heart of the Riesengebirge, and he found two larvK 

 at an elevation of 4,000 feet, which ^trodnced festiva not differing in the 

 least from the form of the fiat country. Conflua has never been taken 

 in the Riesengebirge, whilst this form further east on the Schneeberg 

 and Altvater at considerable elevation, seems to represent festiva. On 

 the moors of the Upper Hartz, there occurs a small pale form oi festiva, 

 but I have never found anything approaching conflua in that locality. 

 Professor Frey gives localities iox festiva not only from the lower regions 

 of the Swiss mountains, but also Sils-Maria in the Upper Engadine 

 about 5,500 feet high, and therefore on the borders between the lower 

 and up|)er Alps : for cotiflua, only the Berner Alps, Belchen, Engethal 

 and Eigenthal, The last three are at a height of 3,000 feet, and 

 therefore on the boundary between the lower region and mountain 

 region. I only give these details for comparison, to show that co?flua 

 does not represent unconditionally the mountain form, d.% festiva occurs 

 everywhere in the mountains at the same elevation ^% conflua, even much 

 \\v^\tx'' {Stett. ent. Zeit., 1884, pp. 360-362). It would appear certain 

 from this, that Continental entomologists, like ourselves, erroneously 

 call the small specimens of festiva — conflua, and have not yet differen- 

 tiated correctly the form known under this name, and it is probable 

 that those from the Alps are simply %m:}\\ festiva, like our own moorland 

 forms, but those from Lapland and probably those from Norway are 

 true. It is certain that the var. borealis is a true conflua variety, for 



