A CATALOGUE OP THE LEPIDOPTERA OP IRELAND. 125 



when occurring singly. Some examples, apparently quite fresh 

 specimens, have very little pink in the spots. The trivial aber- 

 ration jimcta of Tutt occasionally occurs. 



Cymatophora or, Fb. — Very local and rare. All the Irish 

 specimens I have seen are characterised by, (a), absence of rose 

 or purple tint ; (b), ground colour of a paler grey than the 

 generality of British specimens, a trait notable also in Irish 

 C.duplaris ; (c), stigmata inconspicuous, not being thrown into 

 relief by a fuscous ground colour, as in most Scotch and English 

 specimens; {d),ih.Q fasciae on either side of the stigmata are 

 strongly marked. The above description, however, is written 

 from examples from five Irish localities only, the one from Clon- 

 brock having a darker ground than the rest. One example is of 

 so distinct a character that I think the aberration worthy of a 

 name. It is of a female from Farnham, Co. Cavan, and displays 

 the most extreme of the above characters, the ground colour 

 being pearly white, almost obliterating all traces of the stigmata, 

 and the fasciae are formed of very broad and almost black lines. 

 One other similar example, from Scotland, I was shown some 

 years ago, in Mr. Grigg's cabinet, at Bristol. I propose to 

 designate it as ab. gaelica, to indicate the two countries in which 

 the specimens have occurred. 



In comparing the Irish form with those of Great Britain, I am 

 in some difficulty, as Mr. Tutt, with his extensive knowledge of 

 the subject, mentions that out of a long range of British speci- 

 mens he has very few that are not tinged with rose-colour ; and 

 again, that the Scottish insects are of a paler ground colour than 

 the Kentish, and presumably those of Southern England generally. 

 See the description of var. scotica in 'British Noctuae.' I must 

 accept this dictum as generally correct, but will add that the 

 Irish C. or has a paler ground than Mr. Tutt's Scottish series, 

 or those from Sutherland and the I. of Lewes in Mr. Adkin's 

 fine collection. Also that Mr. Adkin's series from Darenth Wood 

 approxnnate more nearly to our form, both in the absence of 

 rose tinting and in the grey ground. I have bred specimens from 

 Epping Forest without any rosy tinge, but, as Mr. Tutt describes, 

 very dingy, one being so brown and devoid of markings that it 

 would have been difficult to identify if it had been a single spe- 

 cimen. Dr. Buchanan White writes {in litt.), "I have none with 

 a white central band. Ground colour rather dark. I have no 

 English or Irish examples to compare with, but the one French 

 specimen I possess is browner and more unicolorous than my 

 Scottish series." 



Localities : Markree Castle, and several at Eockwood, L. Gill, 

 Co. Sligo, where Mr. Euss also took the larvae on an aspen ; 

 Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow (Greene), one specimen; one ditto 

 Derry (C.) ; and ditto Clonbrock {E.E.D.), of dingy brownish 



ENTOM. APRIL, 1894. L 



