NOCTUAS. 



817 



reniform, and beyond the third, that is nearer 

 the tip, are three pale dots : the hind margin 

 is dark brown, bounded, towards the disk of 

 the wing, by a pale zigzag line, on which 

 rest six or seven wedge-shaped spots, their 

 points being directed towards the base of the 

 wing; the fringe is pale on the inside, dark on 

 the outside : the fore wings of the female are 

 usually darker than those of the male, and 

 less distinctly variegated ; the hind wings are 

 very pale in the male, smoky-brown in the 

 female ; they have a crescentic discoidal spot, 

 a darker bxit indistinct marginal band, darker 

 rays, and a pale fringe : the thorax is varie- 

 gated with the two tints of brown, which 

 adorn the fore wings ; the body is pale gray 

 at the base, pale brown at the tip. 



"The CATERPILLAR is dull greenish-gray, 

 with paler dorsal and darker sub-dorsal stripes; 

 two rows of black dots between them, and a 

 row of short white streaks on each side of the 

 spiracles (Freyer). It feeds at the roots of 

 grasses." Staintoris Manual^ vol. i. p. 223. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 seems rather a coast than an inland species : 

 it has been taken rather plentifully in the 

 localities where it occurs, as at Penzance, 

 Whitsand Bay, Slapton Ley, Budleigh-Salter- 

 ton, Torquay, Braunton-Burrows, Poole, Isle 

 of Wight, Brighton ; Essex, Norfolk, and 

 Suffolk coasts, coasts of Pembroke, Caermar- 

 then, Glamorgan, Cardigan, Flint, Cheshire, 

 and Yorkshire : it also occurs in Scotland, 

 and Mr. Birchall says it is abundant on the 

 coast of Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Agrotis valligera.) 



Obs. In our British Lepidoptera many of 

 those groups of individuals now regarded as 

 " species" are excessively variable in the tint 

 of colour, and in the character of the mark- 

 ings : this is more particularly the case in the 

 genus Agrotis, and my illustrious predecessor 

 Haworth, who has been justly styled the 

 Father of British Lepidopterology, founded 

 numerous species on these very obvious 

 differences. Much as I value the labours of 

 Haworth, and greatly as I treasure his 

 " Lepidoptera Britannica," I need hardly 

 say that I entirely agree with those later 



observers v?ho have regarded such differences 

 as of less importance than specific rank ; and 

 who have found, by breeding from the egg, 

 that progeny the most divei-sified, in these 

 particulars, often claim a common parentage ; 

 and, therefore, that it is each group of such 

 diversely ornamented individuals, and not 

 each form of variation, that is entitled to 

 rank as a "species:" all the descendants of 

 one parent or one pair of parents thus consti- 

 tute a "species." This principle was always 

 admitted, but it is only of later years that 

 tiie wide extent of variation in a species has 

 been thoroughly appreciated and understood. 

 It has therefore become desirable under each 

 of our modern species of these variable moths, 

 to associate the names given by Haworth, 

 whether under the impression that they were 

 species, or from any reason previously unde- 

 scribed. The present species is the Archer's 

 Dart (Bombyx sayittiferus) of Haworth (Lep. 

 Brit., No. 66). 



623. The Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta). 



523. THE SHUTTLE-SHAPED DART. The 

 antennae are very slightly ciliated in the male, 

 simple in the female ; the fore wings are 

 nearly straight on the costa, and rather blunt 

 at the tip ; their colour in the male is wain- 

 scot-brown with a dark brown shade at the 

 base, and another surrounding and incorpo- 

 rating the concolorous reniform spot ; in the 

 female they are dark bistre-brown with a 

 medium pale shade, which includes the orM- 

 cular spot, reduced to a short dark brown line 

 bordered with pale brown : the hind wings 

 are white in the male, pale smoky-brown in 

 the female ; the head is pale gray, the front 

 of the collar dark brown, tne rest ot tue 



