IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 13 



a. var. coronula, Haw. This variety has the typical pale whitish 

 markings near the apex of the anterior wings of a pale greyish brown 

 colour, the white colour being reduced to a lunule on the inner part 

 of the mark. " Alis fuscis, annulo maculaque postica coronaeformi 

 fuscescentibus," is Haworth's diagnosis (' Lepidoptera Britannica,' 

 p. 179). I have received this form from South Wales, and have 

 frequently captured it with the type at Strood, Cuxton and other 

 places in North Kent. 



/?. var. olivacea, Dobr^e, in litt. Like var. coronula, this has no 

 white markings, the white portions being suffused. The suffusion, 

 however, is in this form of a dark olive-green colour. In some places 

 this form is equally common with the type, often more so, as is the 

 case in Yorkshire. In ' Entom ' x., p. 124, the late Mr. Prest writes : 

 " The form of A. ligustri, we (in the neighbourhood of York) find, is 

 suffused with dark olive-green ; we rarely see the white-crested form. 

 I took thirteen of this species at sugar one season, some years ago, and 

 of these, ten were olive-green with no white markings." Mr. Dobrde 

 says that " In the East Biding of Yorkshire A. ligustri is not a common 

 insect, but a variety in which the white is totally wanting, and 

 replaced by olive-green is equally common with the type." Herr A. 

 Hoffmann (Hanover) writes me : " I have got ligustri from Vienna, of 

 a greenish-brown colour, with no white markings, the places where 

 the white markings ought to be, are only a little lighter than the 

 other part of the anterior wings." The occurrence of this variety, in 

 such widely different localities as Yorkshire and Vienna, is very 

 interesting. It will be noticed that this is an extreme form, in which 

 the green with which the type is tinged in its darker parts, suffuses 

 the whole area of the anterior wings. 



y. var. nigra, mihi. The whole of the anterior wings uniformly 

 black, with all the transverse markings which characterise the type 

 of a still more intense black. There is no trace whatever of pale spots 

 or markings, and no trace of green. I have only seen this form from 

 Wadworth Wood, near Doncaster, where it was captured by Mr. A. E. 

 Hall. I published the original description of this variety in ( The 

 Entomologist's Record,' &c., vol. 1., p. 34. 



Acronycta, Och. (Cuspidia, Chapman), aceris, L. 



This species shows a very considerable amount of difference in 

 the ground colour of the anterior wings, some of the paler tinted 

 specimens being of a pure whitish-grey, while others are much suffused 

 with ochreous and black. The hind wings exhibit considerable vari- 

 ation and the nervures are very strongly marked, those of the females 

 being darker than the males. The fringes, too, are strongly marked, the 

 black markings being very conspicuous. The Linnasan description is 

 as follows : " Alis deflexis canis : superioribus lineolis undatis annul- 

 oque ovali nigris." " Alee superioris basis lineola fusca et margo 

 posticus nigro punctatus " (' Systema Naturae,' pp. 846, 847). The 

 infuscata of Haworth is a suffused brown form, the candelisequa of 

 Esper, a suffused grey form (not ochreous or brown). Almost all our 

 specimens have a tinge of ochreous in them, and therefore differ both 

 from the type and the extreme infuscata. Most lepidopterists consider 



