72 LEPIDOPTERA. 



straighter, and the hiud margin even slightly concave below 

 the apex. The usual range of colour in this local race is from 

 dark red-brown or dark chocolate to black-brown and purple- 

 brown, though occasional specimens are of a much paler pur- 

 plish-brown or even pale greyish-brown ; the stigmata and 

 intermediate black spots are in these often distinct, the former 

 being usually either tinged with reddish or clouded with grey, 

 the latter black or extremely dark chocolate-brown ; the 

 purple-brown transverse stripe beyond the second line is 

 usually also very distinct ; but the usual double transverse 

 lines are generally absent or indicated only by the enclosed 

 paler narrow stripes, so that the clouded or mottled tint 

 usual in Southern specimens is here replaced by more regular 

 deep and sombre colouring and a more uniform pattern of 

 markings ; nevertheless there is a good deal of variation in 

 ground colour and in the presence or absence of the more 

 restricted markings, while the aberration in form of the fore 

 wings is quite extraordinary, some of the females of this race 

 captured in the Island of Unst by Mr. F. J. Hanbury, mea- 

 suring in breadth of these wings hardly more than one-third 

 of their length, while their costal and dorsal margins are 

 almost parallel — certainly their fore wings are hardly more 

 than one-half the width of those of a normal Southern female 

 specimen. In a series carefully selected and forwarded by 

 Mr. J. J. F. X. King, of specimens taken by him in Unst, is a 

 perfectly graduated range from this extreme narrow form 

 through the intermediate variations to fairly normal southern 

 types. In Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher's collection are some of 

 these narrow and pointed forms with the fore wings chestnut- 

 brown, the stigmata very pale and the dark markings 

 extremely sharp ; others pale purplish, pale grey, and some 

 having the transverse lines and stigmata yellow. Perhaps, 

 however, the most wonderful range of variation is exhibited 

 in the long series captured by Mr. F. J. Hanbury, from which 

 a selection is made for figuring in this work. 

 In the Orkneys specimens are found approaching the peculiar 



