TRIFID^. 367 



(X. Zollikoferi, Frr. — In the Entomologist, 1870, the 

 late Mr. Henry Doubleday stated as follows : " In the be- 

 ginning of October 1867, Mr. Harding took a large Noctua, 

 at Deal, which was unknown to me, but which I thought 

 might be Xi/lojiJiasia Zollikoferi, from M. Gaenee's remark 

 that some authors had placed this species in the genus 

 Nonagi'ia, and Mr. Harding's moth certainly resembles a 

 female N. fifplue in colour and markings. A short time 

 since I sent it to Dr. Staudinger, and he says it is A''. Zolli- 

 hoferi, var. This species is principally found in Hungary and 

 Russia, but is not common anywhere." 



This specimen is still in Mr. Doubleday's collection at 

 Bethnal Green Museum, and is in excellent preservation. 

 The suggestion has been made that it is nothing more than 

 a singular variety of A^. ])olyodon, but with this view I do 

 not find myself able to agi"ee. It is a male, and of the size 

 and breadth of fore wings of the female X. iJolyodon — that is, 

 broader and fuller than in the male — its costal and dorsal 

 margins are very broadly whitish-brown, as are the nervures 

 and a stripe before the hind margin ; the middle area and 

 hind margin of a coarse dull umbreous ; from the middle of 

 the base is a black, longitudinal, rather sinuous streak one 

 third the length of the wing ; stigmata mere faint pale clouds 

 hardly margined ; no transverse lines except a cloudy indica- 

 tion of the subterminal, in which there is no indication of the 

 usual sharply pointed white W, but in the place thereof very 

 short, obtuse, obscure angles. Hind wings rather clear white, 

 with distinct brown nervures and only a very narrow faint 

 smoky-brown cloud before the hind margin. This appearance 

 of the whitened nervures long basal streak and obliterated 

 W on the fore wings, and white hind wings, gives the insect an 

 altogether different aspect from that of any of the numerous 

 known varieties of A', ixdyodon. It must be admitted, how- 

 ever, that it is quite as different from the figure of A". Zolli- 

 Tcoferi in Dr. Hof mann's work recently published ; but, on the 

 other hand, it agrees well with the examples of that species 



