A CATALOGUE OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF IRELAND. "209 



in Ireland. I have never seen Irish specimens of either, and 

 helieve the former locahty to have been derived from a very un- 

 rehable source]. 



NOCTU^. 

 BBYOPHILID.E. 



Bkyophila muralis, Forst. — The type has been taken by the 

 Eev. Joseph Greene, and I think the late Frederick Bond, at 

 Queensto^Yn, and elsewhere in the vicinity of Cork by the late 

 Mr. Sinclair, whose collection I possess. They present very 

 great diversit}^ and range from specimens belonghig to Mr. Bond, 

 which he states {in litt.) are greener than any English ones in 

 his possession, to a dingy yellowish grey with strongly-marked 

 design. In Co. Galway a few examples of ordinary character 

 have been captured by Mr. Allen and Mr. Dillon. 



Var. impar, Warren. — Along with the type, which occurs 

 numerously in the neighbourhood of Cork, Mr. Sinclair took a 

 very long series of extremel}^ varied forms, some of which 

 correspond to the various aberrations named by Mr. Tutt 

 " Jiavescens, pallida, obscara," and others, to impar, Warren. 

 The design, which in the type consists of sharply-defined black 

 hues, becomes more and more obsolete in the aberrations, till it 

 is merely represented in impar by pale stride, and in var. obscara 

 by dark blotches on a smoky grey ground. When Mr. Warren 

 published his description of the Cambridge variety, under the 

 name of v. par, Hb., I showed a selection of my Cork specimens 

 to him, which he acknowledged to belong to that form (Ent. 

 Mo. Mag. xxi. 23). Mr. Bond also identified them at once as 

 " Mr. Warren's par or impar.'" The varietal characters quoted 

 and given by Mr. Tutt ('British Noctuse,' vol. iv.) are all shown 

 by the Cork examples ; but last year Mr. Farren allowed me to 

 inspect a fine fresh series taken by him at Cambridge, among 

 which were some more uniformly speckled, with very distinct 

 black scales, and of a steel-grey coloration. I have no Irish 

 examples which correspond with these. It has been urged by 

 some that v. impar may be classed as a distinct species (or sub- 

 species, whatever that may mean) ; but it must be recollected 

 that in Co. Cork a very graduated series can be taken on the 

 same wall with the type, including the form named by Mr. 

 Warren, which grades oli" into the v. obscara. Impar, therefore, 

 is only an aberrant form in Coi'k, though a local variety at 

 Cambridge, only one specimen of the type having been recorded 

 there. I am not in favour of indicating every grade of variation 

 of so unstable an insect by a separate name, unless it is very 

 distinct from the rest, or is strictly localised. I acknowledge, 

 however, that the speckled bluish grey form taken by Mr. Farren, 

 at Cambridge, is a very remarkable one, and well distinguishable 

 from the general run of impar. The following description of the 



