VARIETIES OF NOCTU^ IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 179 



anterior wings entirely red, with nervures distinctly marked, the 

 extreme hind margins with fuscous dots ; the hind wings pale 

 grey, with a broad cinereous patch at the anal angle " (Haworth's 

 'Lepidoptera Britannica,' p. 174). The hind margin is in some 

 of the red varieties unspotted, and the posterior wings are often 

 very dark. I have a fine series of this rufescent form, obtained 

 from the marshes in this neighbourhood a few years ago. 

 Havvorth described imnctina from only two specimens. 



y. var. imnctilinea, mihi. — The anterior wings reddish- 

 ochreous, much suffused with dark scales ; the row of spots 

 parallel to the hind margin well developed, forming an almost 

 continuous row, commencing on the costa and ending on the 

 inner margin ; a dark shade under the pale median nervure. 

 The posterior wings very much suffused, and very dark ; in some 

 specimens almost black. I have a few specimens of this variety, 

 showing the extreme variation in the development of these dots, 

 captured on Greenwich Marshes in 1883 ; but such forms are rare. 



Leiicania, Och., pallens, li. 



The type of L. ixdlens has a pale ochreous ground colour, 

 with paler wing-rays, and one or two black spots. (There are 

 generally three black dots — one in the centre of the wing at the 

 end of the discoidal cell, the other two being beyond the centre, 

 and situated one directly above the other, immediately below the 

 median nervure, and being a portion of that row, parallel with the 

 hind margin, which is normal in the strongly marked varieties of 

 straminea, occurs in var. 'punctilinea of impiira, but does not 

 seem ever to be developed in th's species. Specimens of all 

 shades of colour obtaining in this species are very inconstant as 

 to the number of these three dots developed). Hiibner's fig. 

 234 of pallens is typical, but has three dots. The Linnsean 

 description of the type is as follows : — " Spirilinguis lavis, alis 

 deflexis pallidis immaculatis : marginibus posticis subtus nigro 

 punctatis." " Also superiores supra puncto 1, sed 2, nigro, 

 minimo. Subtus alae atomis nigris, imprimis margine postico 

 nigro-punctato." (' Systema Naturse ). The ground colour 

 varies from pale ochreous (nearly white) to bright ochreous-red. 

 It rarely happens that the anterior wings are suffused with black 

 scales to an appreciable extent. The hind wings are typically 



