58 VARIETIES OF NOCTU^E 



purplish-brown or reddish-brown markings. Sepp figures this pale form 

 (i., pi. 3), and Guenee says of it (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 123) : " Sepp's 

 figure (No. 7) is a work of art. It is represented with folded wings, 

 but the colour is too pale." It would seem, therefore, that Guenee 

 was unaware that there was a paler form. Mr. G. T. Porritt, in his 

 ' List of Yorkshire Lepidoptera,' published in the ' Transactions of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union,' Part vi., p. 72, writes : " Mr. N. F. 

 Dobree writes of this species : ' In all the specimens I have seen from 

 the E. Eiding, the size is not more than two thirds that of southern 

 specimens, and the colouring is yellow instead of orange. The 

 difference is so marked that I am ' surprised that it has not hitherto 

 been noticed in print.' " Mr. Dobree also writes me : " All the 

 flavago which I take here in October (when I look for lutosa) are much 

 smaller than the handsome orange specimens, and of a yellow colour 

 which may almost be called a lemon-yellow. Under wings similarly 

 much paler. These I get accidentally at flight or at sugar, the orange 

 always by breeding, considerably earlier. I hold it to be a distinct 

 var., but have not sought general information, and am open to correc- 

 tion " (in litt.}. With regard to this I may add that I have bred a con- 

 siderable number of the orange form, var. flavoauratum, but do not 

 remember breeding pale ones, although I have captured them late in 

 September. Thus I have both forms from this neighbourhood 

 (Greenwich), and my Hull specimens are of both forms. I have, 

 however, received bred specimens of the typical form from Mr. Baynes 

 of Ulverston. Taking therefore the pale form as the type, the darker 

 form is: 



a. var.flavago, Esp. = flavoauratum, mihi (' Entom.' xxi., p. 271). 

 Esper thus describes this form : " The upper wings strong citron- 

 yellow much sprinkled with reddish yellow scales. The ordinary 

 stigmata are dark and the broad bands blackish with a red tinge." Our 

 specimens have the superior wings of a bright golden yellow, with the 

 two ordinary transverse bands dark purplish brown, the nervures of a 

 bright reddish colour. Inferior wings of a pale yellowish grey colour, 

 with a blackish lunule and a blackish band parallel to the hind 

 margin. This is described under x the name of flavago by Guenee, 

 ' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 122 ; by Newman, ' British Moths,' p. 279 ; by 

 Stainton, ' Manual,' vol. i., p. 197 ; by Humphrey & Westwood, 

 ' British Moths,' vol. i., p. 213 ; and by Haworth, under the name of 

 ochraceago, ' Lepidoptera Britannica,' p. 234. In fact, Hiibner and 

 Sepp seem to be the only authors who figure and describe the pale 

 type. 



Hydrcecia, Gn., nictitant, L. 



After a great deal of careful study, I have come to the conclusion 

 that we probably have, under the name of nictitans, L., two at least 

 distinct species, one of which I at first thought was the lucens of 

 Freyer ; but this is not so, the latter being entirely different to the 

 form which I call paludis. My opinion has been formed from the 

 study of the imagines, both in their various phases of variation, and 

 the natural conditions of their occurrence. In the absence, however, 

 of any actual proof of their distinctness, I have treated the form that I 

 consider distinct as a local race or subspecies of nictitans under the name 



