46 VARIETIES OP NOCTtT^E 



red type, and is a more specialised form (in colour) of var. punicea. 

 The following variety has the same ground colour, but the dark longi- 

 tudinal shades which are in fluxa well-developed, give it a very 

 different appearance. The specimens from the Trossachs and the 

 Kannoch district are especially beautiful. 



J. var. fluxa, Tr. Treitschke (vol. v., p. 313) gives the following 

 description of the type of this variety : " Alis anticis fusco rufescenti- 

 bus, atomis venisque nigricantibus." Dr. Staudinger says of this form, 

 " Paler, reddish, or greyish yellow." The " greyish yellow " forms 

 are included on his own responsibility, and are of course incorrect, as 

 also are " paler " forms, as this is a distinctly dark form and really only 

 a sub -var. of pygmina ; "nigricantibus" can hardly be suggested to 

 mean " paler." I should say Dr. Staudinger did not note the original 

 description. Certainly they are not included by any other writers 

 under this name. In Humphrey and Westwood's ' British Moths,' vol. 

 i., p. 219, there is a fuller description of fluxa, it is "of a reddish 

 brown colour, slightly irrorated with dusky scales ; veins dusky ; hind 

 wings brown, with the base and costa ashy." There is no doubt that 

 the greater number of our northern English and Scotch forms would 

 be included under this varietal name. I have a long series from the 

 Trossachs and Glasgow. The Trossach specimens are particularly 

 beautiful in the shade of the red coloration (as in pygmina from the 

 same locality) and throw up the characteristic, longitudinal dark shades 

 very distinctly. 



77. var. neurica, St. (non. Hb.). Hiibner's neurica, fig. 381, is 

 another distinct British species. Stephens' and Wood's (* Ind. Ent.,' 

 plate xv., p. 372) neurica, must not be confounded with Hiibner's 

 (Nonagria) neurica, as the former is only a var. oi fulva. It is described 

 as "about five-sixths of an inch in the expanse of the fore- wings, which 

 are ochreous or brownish red, with a curved row of minute dusky 

 dots beyond the middle of the wing ; the apical veins slightly 

 brownish, and the hind wings pale whitish ash. Taken but rarely at 

 Lea Bridge and Whittlesea Mere " (Humphrey and Westwood's 

 1 British Moths,' p. 219). This form appears to be intermediate 

 between var. ochracea and var. pygmina, and in its extreme forms comes 

 between var. ochracea and the type, having the ochreous colour of the 

 former and the red colour of the latter combined. It appears to be 

 not at all a common form. My specimens come from Glasgow, the 

 Trossachs and Warrington. The Warrington specimens are especially 

 large and very beautiful. 



Tapinostola, Och., concolor, *Gn. 



"Superior wings oblong, with the hinder margin straighter at 

 first, then more curved than in fulva; of a bone- white colour in both 

 sexes ; lightly powdered with grey at the ends of the spaces between 

 the nervures, and developed into indistinct dark streaks ; a row of black 

 spots always distinct, though faintly marked, in place of the transverse 

 angulated line. Inferior wings of a darkish grey in both sexes, with 

 the ends of the nervures and the fringes clearer" (Guende's 

 'Noctuelles,' vol. v., pp. 103, 104). All authors have treated this as a 



* My reasons for treating this as a variety of fulva are discussed fully in the 

 'Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. xxv., pp. 52 55. 



