78 THE entomologist's record. 



Messrs. Porritt and Adkin, in breeding vars. of S. mendtca, point to 

 them as the men most likely to get some results worth comparing with 

 those already arrived at by our Roumanian " brother of the net," 

 Mons. Caradja. 



Varieties of Noctuides at Warrington. 



By T. ACTON. 



Hydroecia lucens : its varieties and sub-varieties. — In the 

 chapter on Hydroecia nictitans, and the sub-species H. lucens and H. 

 paludis, in The British Noctvae and their Varieties (vol i., pp. 58-64), 

 Mr. Tutt points out at considerable length the tendency of this (or 

 these) species to form local races, not only in far distant localities and 

 under different conditions of environment, but also in places compara- 

 tively near, where the different forms overlap and yet maintain their 

 characters unchanged. Mr. Tutt informs me by letter that his ex- 

 perience of the last few years not only supports what he then wrote 

 concerning these allied forms, but to a large extent has emphasised 

 most of the important phases of the variation and occurrence, as also of 

 the distinctness, of nictitans, lucens und jiaJndis. 



With regard to paludis, no stronger support of Mr. Tutt's state- 

 ments is required than that of Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher {Brit. Noct., i., 

 p. 63), who writes : " I haA'e bred a considerable number of so-called 

 nictitans from larvae found on the south coast, near Worthing, and 

 they are all, without exception, the iorm paludis." My experience has 

 been rather with the sub-species lucens, and here I can give Mr. 

 Tutt's assertions as to its distinctness the most unqualified support. 



Mr. Tutt {Ibid. p. 59) says that at Deal, jiahidis and nictitans over- 

 lap, whilst he further mentions several comparatively near localities 

 {e.g., the marshes about Rochester, and the woods near the same city) 

 in one of which nictitans occurs, and in the other jialudis, but where no 

 overlapping of the forms takes place. 



Here a similar phenomenon is to be observed, but on this occasion 

 the two forms implicated are lucens and jiahidis. On one side of 

 Warrington I have taken this year nothing but jialudis — there have 

 been no lucens ; on the other side (on the Moss) I have taken lucens, 

 but no jialudis. Some of the lucens are exceedingly fine, and both 

 serifis ol captures fully justify the remarks Mr. Tutt made, and the 

 conclusions he formulated some years ago. 



The large size and distinct mottling of lucens, at once separate it 

 from any nictitans, in all its forms of variation. These are, as pointed 

 out in Brit. Noct.. i., p. 62, parallel to those existing in nictitans, and 

 will bear repeating : — 



1. Var. jHtllida, Tutt {Brit. Noet., i., p. 62). — Both sub-varieties 

 pallida-flavo and judlida-albo occur here, but are comparatively rare. 



2. Var. rjrisea, Tutt {Brit. Noct., i., p. 62.) — This form extends 

 through quite a range of ochreous until the specimens become almost 

 brown, a parallel form to paludis var. hrunnea. [For this ab., Mr. Tutt 

 proposes the varietal name hrunnea.'] Of the paler form we get the sub- 

 varieties iirisea-alho and r/risca-flavo, but our specimens always run 

 more ochreous, with a reddish tint, than grey. 



3. Var. rufa, Tutt {Brit. Noct., i., p. 62).— This form, the parallel 

 form to typical nictitans, is very finely developed here. We get the 



