NOOTUAS. 



317 



remform, and beyond the third, that is nearer 

 tip, are tln-ee pale dots : the hind margin 

 dark brown, bounded, towards the disk of 

 the wing, by a pale zigzag line, on which 

 est six or seven wedge-shaped spots, their 

 Dints be'ing directed towards the base of the 

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

 the outside : the fore wings of the female are 

 isually 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, 

 darker but indistinct marginal band, darker 

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

 gated with the two tints of brown, which 

 iclorn the fore wings ; the body is pale gray 

 it the base, pale brown at the tip. 



" The CATERPILLAR is dull green ish-gray, 

 jith 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 (Frei/er). It feeds at the roots of 

 passes." Staintoris Manual, vol. i. p. 223. 

 The MOTH appears on the wing in July, and 

 eems rather a coast than an inland species : 

 it has been taken rather plentifully in the 

 xlities where it occurs, as at Penzance, 

 liitsand Bay, Slapton Ley, Budleigh-Salter- 

 m, Torquay, Braunton-Burrows, Poole, Isle 

 Wight, Brighton ; Essex, Norfolk, and 

 Hiflblk coasts, coasts of Pembroke, Caermar- 

 theii, Glamorgan, Cardigan, Flint, Cheshire, 

 xnd Yorkshire : it also occurs in Scotland, 

 xuil Mr. Birchall says it is abundant on the 

 coast of Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Agrotis valliyera.} 



Obs. In our British Lepidoptera many of 

 those groups of individuals now regarded as 

 "species" ai-e 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 iny illustrious predecessor 

 Ha worth, 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 treasui-e his 

 " Lepidoptera Britannica," I need hardly 

 s&y that I entirely agree with those later 



observers "who have regarded such differences 

 as of less importance than specific rank ; and 

 who have found, by breeding from the egg, 

 that progeny the most diversified, 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 

 the 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 (Bombyv sagittiferus) of Haworth (Lep. 

 Brit., No. 66). 



523. The Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis put a). 



523. THE SHUTTLE-SHAPED DART. The 

 antenna? 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 orbi- 

 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, the rest of the 



