LUPERINA (?) (aPAMEa) GUENEEI, DOUBLEDAY. 53 



Luperina (?) (Apamea) gueneei, Doubleday, as a species, and as 

 a British species {irith plates). 



By Hy. J. TURNER, F.E.S. 

 Through the kindness of Mr. Arthur Murray, of St. Anne's-on-Sea, 

 Lancashire, I have recently had the opportunity of examining various 

 forms of Lnj'erina (?) (jueneei, and I must say that I do not understand 

 how it has been possible to confuse any of them with /. . tcntacea. Both 

 w^orn specimens and specimens taken when drying their Avings, and 

 therefore in bred condition, have been submitted to me, and it seems 

 only feasible to suppose that most of the specimens reported up to 

 the present rediscovery have been L. testacea, the littoral forms of which 

 vary very considerably from the type form. When one looks down a 

 series, such, say, as that in the cabinet of Mr. E. Adkin,of Lewisham, 

 and compares it with the adjacent series of L. testacea, one can have 

 no shadow of doubt as to the absolute specific distinction of the two 

 species. In L. testacea the facies is very constant, and there is quite a 

 distinctive look about the markings both in their unvaried, or practically 

 unvaried, position on the wing, and relative to one another, as well as 

 in their definition. L. testacea is rightly named, for almost every form 

 has the whole wing suffused testaceous, even the melanic specimens 

 show a trace of this colour, whereas in all the examples of L. t/iieueei 

 taken during the past two seasons, and there have been a very large 

 number, I have not heard of a single one with any approach to that 

 distinctive suffusion. The colour of the latter species, on the other 

 hand, is equally distinctive. Doubleday described it {R'lit. Ann. 1864, 

 pp. 123-4) as "pale testaceous, mixed with white." The testaceous tinge 

 is so pale, and the white is so soft, as to give a silvery look to the 

 wing texture, absolutely different to the texture ever attained bv /.. 

 testacea. Doubleday gives the hindwings as pure white in both sexes, 

 whereas with regard to /.. ^csfftrfrt, Newman says, "hindwings delicately 

 pale." They can certainly be described as such, but there is always a 

 tinge of the testaceous, and in the melanic specimens, whatever the 

 duskiness of the forewings, never at any time do they approach the 

 delicate pearly purity of whiteness attained in all the specimens of L. 

 liuemei which I have seen. There is a tarnished look about [j. testacea, 

 of which one never gets an idea in the other species, which strikes one 

 by the soft beauty of its general texture of forewing as well as by the 

 purity of its untarnished hindwings. Newman refers to the most 

 conspicuous marking of L. testacea, as being the capital I placed 

 longitudinally below the two discoidal spots." This I is practically 

 always present and more distinct rather than less, even in the darkest 

 examples it is quite easily traced, while it is only by a stretch of the 

 imagination that it can be seen as at all present in the other species. 

 By taking a more emphasised portion of the transverse line outside the 

 discoidal spots in L. (jueneei, as the top of the I, and a more emphasised 

 portion of the transverse line nearer the base than the discoidals as 

 the bottom of the I, one can sometimes "see" an indefinite union, 

 but the idea is a strained one. In all specimens of L. testacea, one 



* Dr. Chapman, after examination of the figures in numerous ilkistrated 

 ccntinental works, suggests that in continental specimens this character is much 

 less emphasised and even absent. 

 March 15th, 1911. 



