VARIETIES OF NOCTU^ IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 97 



this variation Dr. White, quoting Mr. H. Doubledaj-, writes:— 

 This (the Inverurie specimen) is a very pale variety. My 

 specimen (the Deal one) is thickly irrorated "with black along the 

 nervures, and very closely resembles in appearance a female 

 N. typlue. I sent my specimen to Dr. Staudinger, and he said it 

 agreed exactly with a specimen in his cabinet which was captured 

 in Hungary. He added that it was one of the rarest of the 

 European Nocture, and he only knew of the existence of a few 

 specimens, two of which were taken near Beilin, and the others in 

 Hungary and Russia ' " (' Scottish Naturalist,' vol. i. p. 267). As 

 our two British specimens are so much paler than the type I 

 propose to call them var. pallida. 



Var. pallid,/, milii. — Tlie following is Dr. White's descri[)tion of the 

 Aberdeenshire specimen : — "Front wings shining greyish ochreous, more 

 grey beyond the subterminal line, and the nervures tUintly marked out in 

 grey. The only markings are the orbicular stigma, the edges of which are 

 pale ochreous but very indistinct ; the claviforra stigma also edged with 

 oclireous but almost imperceptible ; the reniform stigmata which are more 

 apparent, outlined with ochreous, and the lower end filled in with pale 

 grey ; the elbowed line, which consists of a row (in some places double) of 

 small blackish spots on the nervures, and a faint ochreous line near the 

 inner margin; and the subterminal hne which is pale ochreous and 

 serrated, especially in the middle where it is like a W, the serrations looking 

 towards the base are tipped with grey. The hind margin is undulated" 

 and between the tips of the nervures is a grey line : the fringes are 

 ochreous, intersected by a darker line ; the inner margin is narrowlv 

 greyish black. The hind wings are ochreous white with the nervures and 

 the hind margin irregularly ochreous grey. The expansion of the wing is 

 about 2i inches." Dr. White then adds :— " Herrich-Schaffer ' Schmet. 

 von Europa,' &c., gives two figures of this species. Fig. 103 is most like 

 the Inverurie specimen but differs in being much darker in colour, in 

 having no trace of the claviform and orbicular stigmata, the elbowed line 

 distinctly formed of two rows of dots and no ochreous line on the inner 

 margin, the subterminal line more distinctly marked with grey. The hind 

 wings are much darker, and the expanse of the wings barely 2 inches. Fig. 

 104 is very different and looks almost like a different species" (' Scottish 

 Naturalist,' vol. i. pp. 267, 268). The Doubleday specimen is so much 

 paler than the type, that I think it may be very well incU.ded under this 

 varietal name. 



Dipterygia, St., scahriuscula, L. 



The type of this species is the scahriuscula of the ' Systema 

 Naturae,' 10th edition, p. 516, No. 108, where it is described as 

 follovys : — " Noctua spirilinguis cristata, alis deflexis fuscis : 

 margine dorsali posticoque pallidis." " Cristse in dorso ipsius 

 abdominis 4 pone thoracem gibbum." The same author in the 

 12th edition of the same work appears to describe the same 

 species under the name of pinastri, but in the description of 

 jnnastri he uses the word " nigris " instead of "fuscis," otherwise 



ENTOM. — AVillL, 1889. L 



