IN. THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 37 



would hardly seem to be so from Guen&'s remarks, ' Noctuelles,' p. 80, 

 where he writes : " Bad as is the figure of Geyer, I believe decidedly 

 that it really is the type of this species, which it represents, and not, 

 as I at first thought, a variety." I have dwelt on Hiibner's figures of 

 this species, because they represent the first described or figured types 

 of the species. 



Leucania, Och., brevilinea, Fenn.* 



The type of this species is described in the Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. i., 

 p. 107, by Mr. Fenn, and copied therefrom into Newman's ' British 

 Moths,' p. 271. The chief character of the type (from which the name 

 has been derived) is a short black line at the base of the anterior wings 

 under the median nervure. 



a. var. sinelinea, Farn. In the 'Entomologist,' vol. xi., p. 103, 

 Mr. Farn describes a variety of brevilinea under this name, calling it 

 " the form in which the line at the base of the wing disappears." It is 

 the var. alinea of ' The Entomologist Synonymic List.' 



Leucania, Och., comma, L. 



The type is described by Linnasus as : " Spirilinguis cristata, alis 

 cinereis deflexis ; lineola nigra adjacente tenuiori albas. Alas sordido 

 colore, lineola nigra baseos. Stigmata nulla " (' Systema Natures,' pp. 

 850, 851, No. 156). The essential points are dirty ash-coloured,with 

 a black lineola touching a slender one of white ; no stigmata. Treitschke 

 writes (vol. v., p. 302) : " Alis anticis pallide fuscis," &c. Hiibner, 

 fig. 228 (by error 328), figures the type as turbida ; his figure is excel- 

 lent. This species varies much in the depth of ground colour and 

 markings, our British specimens rarely occurring as pale as those from 

 the Continent, although Continental specimens are occasionally dark. 

 Hiibner figures this dark form, fig. 617, under the same name, turbida, 

 which he applies to the type. Some of our specimens have a strong 

 ochreous tint. It is worthy of remark that my Deal series includes 

 the darkest, and at the same time the palest British specimens I have 

 ever seen. There is a great deal of variation in the intensity and 

 quantity of black markings between the nervures, towards the outer 

 margins of the anterior wings. There are, also, frequent traces of 

 asymmetry in the markings of this species. I have one with a black 

 lineola at the base of the inner margin on the right anterior wing, but 

 none on the left. 



a. var. suffusa, mihi. The ground colour of the anterior wings of 

 a brownish colour, much darker than the type ; the anterior wings, 

 including the costal area, very much suffused with fuscous scales, the 

 spaces between the wing-rays showing out as distinct, dark, longitu- 

 dinal, wedge-shaped streaks on the outer margin. The black streak 

 under the base of the pale median nervure intensely black. The hind 

 wings of a deep blackish grey colour. Nearly the whole of my British 

 series belong to this melanic form. The specimens which I have from 

 the London and Deal districts are generally darker than specimens I 

 have from Yorkshire, Morpeth, Brecon, and Scotch localities. As 



* I have inserted this species in what seems to me its true position in our 

 lists. It does not appear to me to be a Nonagria, 



