THE VARIATION OF SARROTHEIPUS REVAYANA, SCOPOLI. 125 



Description. — Similar in all respects to the last, but has a 

 row of prominent dark fuscous spots on each side of the dark 

 central area. 



This and the preceding are the forms which have usually 

 been considered by British writers, including Curtis, Stephens 

 and Wood, to be the ab. degenerana of Hiibner, from which one 

 can only infer that they never saw Hiibner's figure, or a true 

 example of what is perhaps the most striking of the revayana 

 forms. 



abs. canescens and lichenodes are not uncommon in the New 

 Forest, and I have specimens from the Isle of Wight. Curtis, 

 writing in 1824, speaks of them as being the most abundant 

 revayana (oY-m atDarenth, and Birchwood, and Stephens in 1834 

 and Wood in 1839 wrote of them as occurring in these localities. 

 I question, however, if it still occurs near London, all the 

 specimens taken in the Metropolitan area of recent years that I 

 have seen belonging to the more melanic and unicolorous forms. 



ab. fasciata, n. ab. (PI. I, fig. 15.) 



Description. — This aberration has the hoary greyish- white 

 ground-colour of the superiors which obtains in the last two 

 forms, but the central dark area extends as a fascia across the 

 whole width of the superiors ; it also has a similarly coloured 

 basal area to the wings. 



oh. fasciata does not appear to have been noticed by previous 

 writers. 



ab. clepicta, n. ab. (PI. I, fig. 16.) 



Synonymy.— Gmtis, Brit. Ent. 29 (1824) degeneranns ; West- 

 wood, Brit. Moths, ii, p. 152, and pl. xci, fig. 12, figured and described 

 as dilutanus (1845) ; Barrett, Brit. Lep. vi, pl. ccli, fig. 3 b (1900). 



Description. — This aberration bears the same relation to ab. 

 fasciata that ab. lichenodes bears to ab. canescens — that is to say, 

 it has the two transverse rows of prominent dark fuscous spots 

 on each side of the dark central fascia. 



I have found these two aberrations in the New Forest ; ab. 

 fasciata has occurred to me somewhat freely, but of ab. depicta 

 I have only four examples. 



Undidana Group. 



The five forms which I have found in Britain, and which I 

 have grouped under this heading, are all dull-coloured fuscous 

 insects. They comprise the vast bulk of the specimens taken in 

 this country. In the London district especially, and probably 

 in other smoky areas, they represent practically all the examples 

 obtained. 



