94 THE ENTOMOIiOGIST. 



or reddish, with black patterns on their wing-cases : — 1, Lygceus 

 militaris widely distributed, as collected at Aceldama and the 

 Valley of Jehoshaphat, Mount Pagus, the Pnyx, the Acropolis, 

 and Deceleia ; 2, Strachia picta, from the Stadium and Throne 

 of Xerxes ; 3, Pyrrhocoris (egyptius, from flowers close to 

 Sardis railway -station, and also from Mount Pagus ; 4, Odon- 

 toscelis fuUginosis, also from Sardis; 5, a species of Rhaphig aster 

 from Ephesus ; 6 and 7 were collected on the summit of 

 Boulgourloo ; and 8 is one of the Hydrometridce from Beyrout. 



Homoptera are solely represented by one kind, Triecphora 

 sanguinolenta from Aceldama, in April ; Ephesus, in May. 



ON THE GENUS AGROTIS. 

 By J. TuTT. 



Can any of our older entomologists give me any decided 

 information pointing to the conclusion that Agrotis tritici, 

 A. aquilina, and A. obelisca are only forms of one and the same 

 species ? I remember some time ago reading an article on the 

 subject, but forget on what facts the conclusion arrived at (if any) 

 were based, and I cannot now find the article referred to. I 

 believe some of our leading entomologists treat A. aquilina as a 

 variety, but consider A. ohelisca as specifically distinct. My own 

 experience would point to the conclusion of all three being the 

 same species. I took, during the first fortnight of August, in 

 the neighbourhood of Deal, some 400 Agrotis tritici, of every 

 possible form. Certainly I took fifty distinct forms, from a pure 

 pale gray, with faint reticulations and the ordinary discoidal 

 spots of the same colour, to very dark specimens, some of which 

 are beautifully tinged with red, the others being of every inter- 

 mediate shade. Among these were five or six specimens of the 

 ordinary pale brown form known as A. aquilina, and four other 

 undoubted southern A. ohelisca. Fortunately, I have been able 

 to compare the latter with Scotch specimens which have been 

 sent to me by Mr. Buglass, of Ayton, Berwickshire, and I have 

 no doubt they are really ohelisca. Of course the fact of taking 

 the species together proves nothing, but I believe I have every 

 gradation of form leading up from the typical A. tritici on the 



