136 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



amount of difference in the intensity of the dark grey border to 

 the hind wings of the males. In some it may be described as 

 black, so intense is it ; while in other specimens there is every 

 grade of intensity to an almost total absence. In both sexes 

 there is a great deal of difference in the development of the dark 

 wedge-shaped marks parallel to the hind margin, but the males 

 vary most in this respect. There is a good deal of sexual 

 difference, the males being, as a rule, much smaller than the 

 females. Mr. Dobree writes : — " In a male I have from Central 

 Kussia, the ground colour is slate-grey " {in lltt.). 



Var. gramiiUs, Hb. — Hiibner's fig. 59 lias " all the pale longitudinal 

 and transverse markings with a distinct pinkish tinge, hind wings also 

 pinkish." The markings are as in our British specimens, the only 

 difference being that of colour, although our British specimens often have 

 the nervures tinged with pink. 



Heliophobus, Bdv., hispida, Hb.-Gey. 



Geyer's figures 784-86, in his Supplement to Hiibner's 

 ' Schmetterliuge,' &c., represent the type of this species. His 

 figure 784 may be described as, "Anterior wings purplish brown, 

 with all the pale markings of a delicate violet, except along the 

 inner margin, where they are yellow. Antennae pectinated. Hind 

 wings grey, darker on the hind margin, with a dark line parallel 

 to the hind margin." His figure 785 is the under side of the 

 male represented in fig. 784 ; while fig. 786 is a female, having 

 " the anterior wings dark reddish brown, with all the pale 

 transverse lines ochreous, and nervures white." I believe the 

 oditis of Hiibner (fig. 694) is only a small hispida $ . It would 

 appear that the continental specimens of this species are, in 

 general, more violet than our British specimens, for in the 

 * Noctuelles,' vol. v. p. 172, Guenee, describing his var. a, says, 

 " less violet," thus leaving us to assume that their type, which he 

 refers to Hiibner's fig. 784, is violet-coloured. For this type he 

 gives as a locality, *' Provence." Regarding these violet-tmged 

 hinpida in England, in answer to a query from me, Mr. Nelson M. 

 Bichardson, M.A., writing from Weymouth, says : — " I cannot see 

 anything worth calling a violet tinge on any of my specimens : 

 there is an approach to a violet tinge on the transverse line just 

 beyond the reniform, but I should not mention it in a description 

 as such, as it is scarcely violet, but rather steel-grey." I have 

 received specimens from Mr. Bichardson and Major Partridge, 

 captured at Portland last year (1888), and I have a number of 

 specimens from Torquay, but none of these show the typical 

 violet coloration. It is remarkable that the specimens from 

 Portland have a much clearer white ground colour* than those 



* This is worthy of notice, as the same difference exists in specimens of 

 E. lichenea from these localities. 



