VARIETIES OP NOCTURE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 185 



not know much, to do with the paucUy of perfect insects, and 

 with their corresponding increase of variation. 



I have given only an account of the Diurni, hut many of the 

 moths that fell to our nets showed also more divergence in the 

 autumn from the usual forms than in the spring examples. 

 Maidstone House, Dover, March 13tli, 1888. 



CONTEIBUTIONS TOWARDS A LIST OF THE VARIETIES 

 OF NOCTU^ OCCURRING IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. 



(Continued from p. 102.) 



Leiicania, Och., riteUina, Hb. 



Hiibner's tj^pe of this species (fig. 371)) is a small, very 

 strongly-marked male, of a bright yellow ground colour, marbled 

 with reddish, with transverse lines and stigmata red ; his fig. 589 

 being a female, larger, dull unicolorous orange, with the trans- 

 verse markings and stigmata indistinct. The specimens I have 

 are all females as large as Hiibner's fig. 589, but intermediate in 

 depth of markings and colour between his figs, 379 and 589. 

 Guenee, in his ' Noctuelles,' p. 73, says : — " It varies in ground 

 colour from a pale yellow to a strong yellowish red, and the 

 markings are more or less clearly marked, following the intensity 

 of the ground colour. I have specimens from Algeria which do 

 not differ from French examples." A good many specimens 

 occur in British collections, but nearly, if not all, must be 

 foreign, for the insect is a southern one, and but rarely occurs 

 even in the north of France and Germany. 



Lcncania, Och., tiirca, L. 

 Until ver}^ recently I was of opinion that this species was a 

 most constant one in colour. Thanks to the Eev. G. H. Eaynor, 

 of Brentwood, I find the species has several shades of colour. 

 Taking the ordinary red forms as typical (the Linnean description 

 is: — " Spirilinguis cristata, alls cinereo-rufis ; strigis duabus 

 fuscis lunulaque alba. Alse superiores absque stigmatibus ordi- 

 nariis, sed in medio lunula alba minuta." — ' Systema Naturae,' 

 p. 847, No. 140.) we find some specimens with a distinctly 



