52 VARIETIES OP NOOTU^B 



reniform lined with white, so as to form a white lunule, the remainder 

 of the reniform blackish, the outer part of all the nervures white on and 

 towards the hind margin. Hind wings dark grey, base paler, with a 

 distinct lunule. It will be thus seen that this is a well-developed 

 sub-variety of var. rufa ; I have no specimens so well marked on the 

 margin as Hiibner's, but I have Isle of White specimens which run 

 it close. 



8. var. unipuncta, mihi. Like the type, dark fuscous with the 

 inner margin reddish-brown, but with only the lower half of reniform 

 white. Hiibner's fig. 637 depicts this form, but is rather dark in 

 ground colour. This form occurs in Sussex and Yorkshire localities 

 with the type, and in the Isle of Wight is more common than any other 

 form. 



e. var. obsoleta, mihi. Like the type, but with the white twin 

 spots characteristic of the type altogether absent. This form also 

 occurs in the same localities with the type, but unlike unipuncta, appears 

 to be more rare than the type. 



J. var. fusca, mihi. Anterior wings unicolorous, of a blackish- 

 fuscous or sooty-black, with the reniform forming two distinct white 

 spots. Sub var. fusca-unipuncta, mihi. Like v. fusca, but with one 

 white spot only. This is intermediate between vars./wsca and nigricans. 

 My specimens are from the Isle of Wight and Sussex localities. 



77. rar. nigricans, Stdgr. Staudinger described this variety as 

 " the anterior wings wholly blackish, with the reniform indistinct." 

 How Staudinger can refer Hiibner's fig. 624 to this variety, and how 

 he can reconcile the white nervures of Hiibner's figure with his de- 

 scription of var. nigricans surprises me ! A very large percentage of 

 a long series, bred by Mr. A. J. Hodges, from larvae taken in the 

 Isle of Wight, are of an intense brownish-black colour, but specimens 

 obtained from Mr. Nicholson from the Lewes district, are of a deep 

 sooty black colour, these latter were bred in 1888. Some specimens 

 have, as Staudinger says, "the reniform indistinct," but some are 

 practically unicolorous, and have no markings whatever. 



Nonagria, Och., cannon, Och. 



Treitschke first described this species under the name cannce in 

 ' Die Schmet. von Europa,' vol. v., p. 225, although Ochsenheimer, in 

 the above work, vol. iv., p. 82, had named the species cannce before 

 this, with reference to previously published figures.* Treitschke's 

 description is as follows : " alis anticis flavo-rufescentibus, serie unica 

 maculaque obsoleta in medio nigris." So far as I have been able to 

 judge from continental specimens, the variation is chiefly sexual, the 

 males being strongly reddish, the females yellowish ochreous, and this 

 is borne out by Hiibner's figs. 386, 387. His fig. 386 is a male; 

 ground colour reddish ochreous ; median and costal nervures grey ; a 

 transverse curved row of seven dots ; hind wings unicolorous grey. 

 Hiibner's fig. 387 is probably a female of a pale yellow ochreous colour, 

 with median and costal nervures darker ; a transverse row of seven 

 black dots on nervures, hind wings grey with a paler line parallel 



* Ochsenheimer wrote the first four vols. of ' Die Schmet. von Europa,' 

 Treifschke finished the remaining vols. after Ochsenheimer's death. 



