NOCTUA FESTIVA AND NOCTUA CONFLUA. 137 



flavis, conico apice atro." Two years later, in vol. vi., pt. 1, p. 405, 

 under the generic name Apaiiwa, he published conflua as a new species. 



It may interest some of those present to know that the laws of 

 botanical nomenclature are wholly different from those governing the 

 use of entomological names. In the former branch of science, when 

 a generic name is altered, the author who first places the species under 

 the revised generic name is deemed to be the author of the specific 

 name, whilst in entomology the name of the author of the species 

 stands, no matter to what genus it may be subsequently transferred. 

 The case before us illustrates my meaning : Treitschke called his moth 

 Apatnca conflua, but now that it is transferred to the genus Noctua\\,\^ 

 equally described as of Treitschke, thus, in fact, representing 

 Treitschke as saying what he never did say, for he never called his in- 

 sect Noctua nmflua. But matters have gone too far in both sciences to 

 attempt to enforce a uniform law, highly desirable as such uniformity 

 would be, and we will dismiss the subject with the happy compromise 

 that if the botanical law is the more moral, the entomological un- 

 doubtedly possesses much to recommend it on the grounds of expediency 

 and convenience. 



But to return to our subject, Treitschke's short diagnosis runs 

 thus : " Ap. alis anticis hepaticis, maculis ordinariis pallidioribus, 

 strigis obsoletis confluentibus." He then proceeds to describe how 

 about sixteen specimens were taken in the Riesengebirge, adding that 

 the males fly by day, but that the females are very retiring, and that 

 the following description, of which I give the translation from the 

 German, is drawn up from a well-marked pair selected from the sixteen 

 specimens above referred to : " Conflua is not much bigger than 

 Apaniea f<t.ri(iilis, the body is reddish leather colour, very woolly on the 

 back and collar, the abdomen is paler, with a reddish anal tuft in the 

 male. The male has pale brown strongly pectinated antennte, and the 

 female long filiform ones. Legs, brown ringed with yellow. The fore- 

 wings are liver-coloured, more or less mixed with yellow or brownish- 

 red, the yellow is generally most distinct on the costa and 

 stigmata. Nothing is visible of the transverse lines but a few 

 blackish dots ; the orbicular stigma is very large, pale ; below it, 

 in the position of the claviform stigma, is a little black dot ; the 

 reniform stigma is also large, and before the beginning of the two 

 stigmata lie two dark reddish-brown and generally triangular marks. 

 Before the paler fringes runs a sufl'used yellowish zigzag line, then 

 follows a series of blackish brown streaks. The hind-wings have, on a 

 yellowish ground, blackish brown dust and yellow reddish fringes. 

 The underside is yellowish white, most dusted with black towards the 

 base of the wings, the nervures are here raised." 



Three years later C. F. Freyer published an excellent drawing, also 

 taken from one of the Riesengebirge specimens, in his I><'itrdr/e zur 

 Geschichtc europdischcr Schinctteiiini/e, vol. iii., tab. 98, fig. 1., p. 8, 

 1830. He compares it with fcstrra, stating that it is smaller and 

 nearer to Hiibner's quadratum, and that when reared it still has a 

 different look from that oifestira. In this latter remark I entirely concur, 

 and I think a glance at the large series before us will evoke a similar con- 

 clusion among those present. Quite as great a distinction is seen betAveen 

 the Continental series of both forms to be found in the British Museum 

 collection. A point of much interest is the practical identity between 



