290 THE entomologist's record. 



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, iniliuUcola 

 igeminipuncta). I only know the district of Darmstadt as its habitat, and there 

 the moth is rather rare. 



This long statement refers to neiirica, Hb., as Treitschke under- 

 stood it, and he states clearly that his veiirica varies in tone from reed- 

 colour to the deepest yellowish dark-brown, as do also palndicola, ti/phae 

 and others," a fact we know to be true of nenrica, Hb. { = arumlineta, 

 Schmidt), but of which we have no evidence up to the present moment 

 of edehteni {i.e., nenrica, Schmidt), although some 3 s are heavily 

 dusted with blackish. There may be in Treitschke's long state- 

 ment a suspicion that he may have had edehteni mixed with his 

 nenrica, but the main features of his general description, like his Latin 

 diagnosis, are applicable only to the latter, and his larval description 

 distinctly refers to nenrica, Hb. = arnndineta, Schmidt. Duponchel 

 in 1840, and Her rich -Schiifier in 1845, refer the species we know as 

 nenrica, Hb., correctly to nenrica, and Boisduval, in 1840, certainly 

 does the same, although he queries Avhether the dark form of nenrica 

 is specifically identical with the pale ferm of the same species, and 

 describes the dark form Hb. 659 (already referred to by Treitschke as 

 dissolnta), and renames it hessii, Bdv. He wrote : — 



"No. 1081. Hessii, Boisd. (an var. neuricae?). Neurica, Hb.,659. AlsB 

 anticas nigro-fuscse, macula reniformi albida, intus fusca ; alas posticas pallidaB. 

 Dom. Hess, qui abunde Nonagrias circa Darmstadt educit, mihi ut variet neurica 

 hanc speciem misit. Dom. Treitschke quoque in synonymia ad neuricam genuinam 

 refert. An rite ?" 



Her rich- Schaffer, Avhilst rightly complaining of the poorness of 

 Hiibner's figures, had no doubt about the species, and his descriptions 

 speak for themselves : — 



" No. 189. Neurica Hb. 381. — Totally defective in its outlines, forewings 

 much too large. Fusco-testacea loco stigmatisreniformis annulo albo, fusco replete. 

 Hindmargin with sharply marked black lunules between the nervures, the outer 

 transverse line indicated by black dots which are shown up by white on both sides. 

 Dark reed-colour, a longitudinal darker ray through the middle of the forewing, 

 before this, towards the costa, some black dots, two indicating the position of the 

 central spot, the third indicating the inner boundary of the front half of the 

 reniform. Hindwings lighter, without markings. Around Darmstadt, August." 



'' No. 187. Hessii, Boisd.; neurica, Hb. 659-61. — Much too robust, outline of 

 the forewings defective. Fuscoferruginea, stigmate reniformi versus limbum et 

 marginem interiorem albocincto. Differs from neurica in appearance only by the 

 reddish-brown colour of the forewings. The central spot extending more towards 

 the outer margin, its form seems more like the usual reniform, the three dots, how- 

 ever, on its outer border are missing. Darmstadt." 



The description of the reniform in Herrich-Schiifter's examples^ 

 "surrounded by whitish, filled in by fuscous," agrees with Hiibner's 

 figure, and is the exact opposite to that of <?'/eZ.s^£'»(', which is " sur- 

 rounded with dark, filled in by white." Besides, the whole of the 

 remainder of the descriptions refers unquestionably to nenrica, Hb. = 

 arnndineta, Schmidt, as also do the descriptions of Guenee (1852), and 

 Stainton (1857). 



So far then, and up to 1858, when Schmidt discriminated the two 

 insects, in the account given in the commencement of this paper, there 

 had been no suspicion of two species being included under the name except 



