324 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Nonagria, Och., neurica, Hb.* 



The type of this species is represented by Hiibner's fig. 381. 

 It is a male of a dull clayey brown colour, with a row of five or 

 six small longitudinal spots along the median nervure, at the end 

 of which is a dark spot surrounded by a whitish ring. This is in 

 reality the lower half of the reniform, the orbicular and upper 

 part of the reniform being entirely absent. An angulated row of 

 eight black dots runs parallel to the hind margin. Hind wings 

 unicolorous blackish grey. Some of our Cambridge specimens 

 are exactly of this form. I have two which came from Mr. 

 Warren, exceedingly characteristic, but a little redder brown in 

 ground colour. Staudinger says of it, " species gracilior, subtus 

 immaculata," but this seems simply a summary of Schmidt's 

 distinction, ' Stett. Ent. Zeit.,' 1858, p. 367. Our specimens 

 generally are of ' a greyish brown colour, tinged with reddish, 

 with a dark, blackish, longitudinal line under the median 

 nervure extending almost to the outer margin. In the black 

 streak, more than half-way from the base, is a tiny black 

 dot with a pale circumscription, which is sometimes joined 

 to another similar but paler spot just above, but sometimes 

 separate, the two together forming the reniform. The orbicular 

 more or less indistinct, a faint trace of a row of tiny dots 

 parallel to the hind margin. The nervures blackish. Hind 

 wings dark grey, with a pale shade parallel to the hind margin ; a 

 slightly darker lunule is present.' This is arundineta, Schmidt. 

 Treitschke, in his 'Die Schmet. von Europa,' vol. v., p. 319, well 

 described this form, under the name of neurica, as: — "alls 

 anticis flavo vel fusco ferrugineis vena maculaque medio albi- 

 cantibus, serie punctorum nigrorum ad marginem externum." 



a. var. arundineta, Schmidt. — Dr. Staudinger says of this 

 variety : — " with the anterior wings pale, of a greyish straw- 

 colour." The chief points of distinction, as given by Schmidt 

 (' Stett. Ent. Zeit.' 1858, p. 367), are as follows :— " The 

 difference between neui'ica and arundineta is less in the under- 

 side and in the markings than in the different structure of the 

 body and the wings. Neurica, Hb., is the more slender, arun- 

 dineta the more robust form. The colour of both forms varies 

 in the same manner, but arundineta has a dark spot on the under 

 * Vide ' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. xxv., p. 56. 



