MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA COLLECTED AT RANNOCH. 109 
colour, with a pale crenated striga, and a long patch at the tip 
much darker: inferior wings with a similar fimbria and striga, a 
curved fuscous line across the middle, with a black dot towards 
the base; the abdomen is spotted with brown down the sides, 
sometimes with two or more spots on the back of the apical 
joints.” He further adds:—‘ The males frequently have the 
upper wings of a dark lead-colour, with the usual brown markings, 
the underwings having a broad. plain fimbria of the same colour ; 
in the females the fascia is generally broad throughout, but it is 
sometimes divided towards the inferior margin in the males. 
Variable as this species is, it may readily be distinguished from 
the foregoing (Z. rubiginata, Hub., Wood 606) by the perfect fas- 
cia of the upper wings.” The varietal name plumbata appears to 
be generally accepted as applicable to the suffused forms only, 
but it will be seen from the foregoing that it applies equally to all 
the forms having a central fascia, even though the fascia be 
divided, whether suffused or not. 
The Cidarias form a particularly interesting group; C. siderata 
and C. miata have an unusually mottled appearance, while C. 
testata is smaller and of a somewhat yellower tone of coloration 
than south English examples. C. populata is represented by a 
long series of extreme forms, which may be divided into two well- 
defined sets; the one has for its base the more typical examples, 
in which the usual markings are clearly defined, but varying 
greatly in intensity of coloration in individuals, some in which 
they are dark, and consequently in strong contrast with the pale 
ground colour, being particularly handsome in appearance. ‘The 
other includes the more obscure forms. Commencing with a 
unicolorous smoky-brown or sometimes fuscous insect (= var. 
musauaria, Frr.), they extend through various gradations in 
which the markings become discernible, although but little 
darker than the ground colour, thus forming a connecting link 
with the least strongly marked examples of the other set. C. 
immanata, as might be expected, is a remarkably varied series, 
but the variation appears to be due to a greater or lesser amount 
of colour, rather than to any obliteration of the normal markings. 
Thus, taking as the type an insect having its anterior wings 
ornamented by a dark basal patch, followed by a tawny band 
edged with white, a broad irregular dark central fascia, also 
followed by a tawny white-edged band, and the outer margin 
mottled, we find in one case the dark colour disappearing from 
the basal patch, and the central fascia becoming filled up with 
whitish (= var. marmorata, Haw.), and the extreme is reached 
in this direction by the tawny bands also becoming pale, little but 
the dark outlines of the various markings remaining; in the other 
case the lighter shades give way to the darker tints, the various 
modifications providing an unlimited number of intermediate 
forms. C. corylata is generally less prone to variation than the 
