IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 49 



to the hind margin, then the usual transverse row of black dots between 

 this and the reniform. Hind wings white, with a lunule and an in- 

 distinct row of dots on the nervures. 



/3. var. bipunctata, Haw. Anterior wings with two black spots, 

 one near the centre of the wing, the other beyond the centre. This 

 variety is figured in Newman's 'British Moths,' p. 26H, fig. 3. 

 Guenee writes : " The two ordinary stigmata and a small spot which 

 precedes them of a deep black " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 99). 



y. var. wismariensis, Schmidt. Anterior wings with a broad 

 black stripe running from the base to the hind margin. This is Guende's 

 var. A, which he describes as having " a broad black band traversing 

 the middle of the wing from the base to the apex " (Guenee's 

 1 Noctuelles,' v., p. 99). 



8. var. nigricostata, Stdgr.* This is described by Dr. Staudinger 

 as having the anterior wings with the costa broadly black. 



c. var. nigrostriata, Stdgr. Anterior wings with many black 

 streaks running parallel to the veins. This is figured in Newman's 

 < British Moths,' p. 68, fig. 4. 



All these varieties are obtainable in their British localities, the 

 Fen district and Kent. 



Nonagria, Och., neurica, Hb.* 



The type of this species is represented by Hiibner's fig. 381. It is a 

 male of a dull clayey brown colour, with a row of five or six small 

 longitudinal spots along the median nervure, at the end of which is a 

 dark spot surrounded by a whitish ring. This is in reality the lower 

 half of the reniform, the orbicular and upper part of the reniform 

 being entirely absent. An angulated row of eight black dots runs 

 parallel to the hind margin. Hind wings unicolorous blackish grey. 

 Some of our Cambridge specimens are exactly of this form. I have 

 two ( 's apparently) which came from Mr. Warren, exceedingly 

 characteristic, but a little redder brown in ground colour. Staudinger 

 says of it, " species gracilior, subtus immaculata," but this seems simply 

 a summary of Schmidt's distinction, < Stett. Ent. Zeit.,' 1858, p. 367. 

 Our specimens are generally of a greyish brown colour, tinged with red- 

 dish, with a dark, blackish, longitudinal line under the median nervure 

 extending almost to the outer margin. In the black streak, more than 

 half-way from the base, is a tiny black dot with a pale circumscription, 

 which is sometimes joined to another similar but paler spot just above, 

 but sometimes separate, the two together forming the reniform. The 

 orbicular more or less indistinct, a faint trace of a row of tiny dots 

 parallel to the hind margin. The nervures blackish. Hind wings 

 dark grey, with a pale shade parallel to the hind margin ; a slightly 

 darker lunule is present. This form is arundineta, Schmidt. Treitschke, 

 in his 'Die Schmet. von. Europa,' vol. v., p. 319, well described this form 

 under the name of neurica, as : " alis anticis flavo vel fusco ferrugi- 

 neis vena maculaque medio albicantibus, serie punctorum nigrorum ad 

 marginem externum." 



a. var. arundineta, Schmidt. Dr. Staudinger says of this variety : 

 " with the anterior wings pale, of a greyish straw-colour." The chief 

 * Vid* ' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. xxv., p. 56. 



