376 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS A LIST OF THE VARIETIES 

 OF NOCTURE OCCURRING IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. 

 (Continued from p. 255.) 



Apamea, Ocli., pahulatricula, Brahm, {connexa, Bork.). 

 The type of this species is described by Brahm, ' Insekten- 

 kalender fur Sammler und Qllkonomen,' as : — " Grey Noctua, with 

 orange-coloured crests." "Head and palpi grey; antennae ash- 

 coloured ; eyes black-brown ; crest grey, and has in front a faint 

 brown transverse line, on each side a black brown streak, in the 

 middle an erect orange-coloured crest; body grey, with a few 

 ash-coloured ridges (comb-shaped) on the back. Fore wings 

 grey, with a short brownish black line at the base of the wing. 

 The orbicular and reniform stand in a light brown ground; 

 before and beyond the stigmata is an undulating transverse line, 

 which come so near together that they almost join and form the 

 apex of an almost right-angled triangle, but instead of really 

 joining they separate suddenly and turn back arch-like ; the 

 space to the inner margin filled out with blackish brown, crossed 

 by a pale grey longitudinal line, which also passes through both 

 transverse lines ; on the inner margin stand a few pale brownish 

 tooth-shaped markings turned towards the inside, and close to 

 the edge a row of blackish brown triangular spots. Hind wings 

 ashy grey." This description agrees almost precisely with the 

 specimens captured in Yorkshire, and sent out by Messrs, 

 Harrison and Young in considerable numbers ; but Mr. Young 

 writes : — " In fresh specimens the crest is rosy. The hind wings, 

 too, are dark smoke colour, nearly black, but both the rosy crest 

 and dark hind wings soon fade " {in I'M.). There appears 

 to be no variation worth speaking of; occasionally the shading 

 on the costa is stronger, and hence makes the central area 

 (enclosing the orbicular) more band-like ; the width of the black 

 HH - mark varies, and thus causes a difference in the width of 

 this central band in its lower part; the pale line (really on the 

 nervure), mentioned above as crossing the lower part of the 

 band, is often indistinct; and the row of black triangular spots 

 (really the teeth of the wavy subterminal line) are very poorly 

 developed in British specimens. Hubner figures this species 

 under the name of elota, with the central band and base of wings 

 ochreous. Our specimens possess the slightest possible ochreous 

 tinge in the centre of the banded area, but I have never seen any 

 real characteristic development in this direction. 



Var. elota, Hb. — Hubner, as mentioned above, figures in his * Schmet- 

 terlinge,' &c., a form of this species with the markings much as in the 

 figure of Newman's ' British Moths,' but with the central and basal areas 

 of the anterior wings ochreous, and the costal and outer margins white. 



