IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 57 



2. Family : APAMIOS:, Gn. 



This extensive family contains some of our most variable and 

 some of our most constant species of Noctuse. It seems almost impos- 

 sible to make any general remarks as to the tendency of variation in the 

 family as a whole, as the different genera vary more or less in different 

 directions. The variation in ground colour is in some instances very 

 remarkable, whilst the markings vary exceedingly in many species. 

 Such species as didyma, bicoloria, strigilis, may well be termed poly- 

 morphic. The colours of a very large number of species vary from a 

 pale grey or yellowish ground colour, through various shades of brown 

 or red, to black. There is probably no family in which more pro- 

 nounced cases of melanism occur, or where it is more general ; micacea, 

 rurea, monoglypha, testacea, leucostigma, didyma, strigilis, exults, basilinea, 

 and abjecta are well-known examples, and all show a great and general 

 tendency to the production of melanic forms. Even such comparatively 

 constant species as scolopacina and sublustris occasionally show a tendency 

 in this direction, the former being darker in Yorkshire than in the 

 London district, the latter sometimes occurring very much suffused at 

 Deal. 



Gortyna, 0., ochracea, Hb. 



Hiibner's ochracea (' Beitrage zur geschichte der Schmet.' pi. 2. m) 

 is the type of this species as noticed by Guenee and accepted by Dr. 

 Staudinger. Hiibner's description (p. 19) is as follows : " The head 

 and thorax are yellow ochreous as also are the fore wings. Near the 

 base is a grey brown band, and in the centre of the wing are two brown 

 circular marks, with paler centres of a yellowish colour. Following 

 these is a wide band of a dark grey brown colour." Esper notices 

 (p. 217) the small size and pale colour of Hiibner's type, and I have 

 received from Mr. Baynes specimens quite as small and rather paler, 

 which were bred from larvae obtained near Ulverston. The typical 

 form from Hull is somewhat larger. In his ' Sammlung Europaischer 

 Schmet.,' Hiibner twice figures (186, 187) this species under the name 

 of flavago, a name previously given by Fabricius to a Xanthia. Hiib- 

 ner's fig. 186 has "the ground colour of the anterior wings pale 

 yellow, with two pale, double, basal lines, the space between filled in 

 with blackish grey ; the stigmata pale, a reddish brown shade passing 

 between them, and extending from the costa to the inner margin ; a 

 double line, outside the reniform, is followed by a narrow blackish 

 grey band, the outer margin being greyish. Hind wings pure white, 

 without markings." Hiibner's fig. 187 has the " anterior wings of an 

 orange yellow ground colour, with dark red-brown transverse mark- 

 ings. The hind wings grey, with a broad, dark, marginal shade, 

 followed by a dark transverse line and a dark lunule." Hiibner's fig. 

 186 (with white hind wings) is very unusual, and Guenee seems to 

 have had doubts whether it represented a variety of ochracea or was 

 distinct, for he writes : " Hiibner figures & flavago with entirely white 

 inferior wings," and then asks, " Is this a variety ? " (' Noctuelles,' 

 vol. v., p. 123). But besides this, there are, as mentioned above, two 

 other distinct, and probably, if carefully noted, equally common forms ; 

 the first is of a pale ochreous yellow, with comparatively pale transverse 

 markings (the type) ; the second is of a deep golden yellow, with bright 



