IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 67 



Helotropha, Ld., leucostigma, Hb. 



Hiibner twice figured this species, first under the name of leu- 

 costigma (fig. 375), and then a very marked variegated variety, of a 

 bright red colour, under the name of fibrosa (fig. 385). The latter 

 name has been in general use in Britain for this species. Our speci- 

 mens are very variable, but most of them are of a dark umber-brown 

 ground colour, although some are much brighter than others in this 

 respect, and I have specimens from Wicken with quite a ruddy appear- 

 ance. In the character of the markings there are two very distinct 

 forms occurring in Britain, one, variegated with paler transverse 

 basal lines, and a broad pale band extending from the apex to the inner 

 margin, just beyond the anal angle, and extending along the inner 

 margin ; the median nervures whitish, and branching under the reni- 

 form, and with either white or ochreous reniform stigmata = var. 

 lunina ; the other, more unicolorous, with the transverse markings 

 comparatively obsolete, the reniform either white = var. albipuncta, or 

 ochreous = the type. We get nothing in Britain so extreme as Hiib- 

 ner's fibrosa ', and Guenee, in the ' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 210, makes 

 the same remark about the French specimens. I am inclined to think 

 that Hiibner's fibrosa is a rather over-coloured specimen, and that the 

 ruddy specimens mentioned above are really the form that Hiibner in- 

 tended to represent. There is no proof that this is so, but no knowledge 

 appears to exist of very bright, red specimens. Guenee writes : " I 

 have never seen this Noctuelle as bright in colour as Hiibner's figure. 

 That of Duponchel is much more natural." He also adds that " speci- 

 mens are found intermediate between fibrosa, Hb., and the unicolorous 

 type." Hiibner's type may be described as : " The anterior wings 

 dark purplish brown, with blackish transverse lines ; reniform yellow- 

 ish. Hind wings purplish grey, with a darker margin." Mr. Dobree 

 writes of the Canadian type : " Leucostigma, so far as my specimens 

 permit me to judge, is rather of a bistre- than an umber-brown, and 

 mottled rather than unicolorous " (in lilt.). Of the type, Dr. Staudinger 

 writes : " Al. ant. unicolor. nigricant. flavo- vel albo-maculatis." 

 Hiibner's type certainly is not "albo-maculatis" but " flavo-maculatis." 

 Mr. Dobree writes : " Both forms occur on the Amur, but apparently 

 fibrosa, Hb., the less commonly (Graeser, < Berl. Ent. Zeits.,' 1888). 

 My specimen of leucostigma from there agrees with Hiibner's type. I 

 have specimens, also from Canada, of both varieties " (in litt.). The 

 principal varieties are : 



a. var. albipuncta, mihi. Unicolorous purplish brown (like the 

 type), umber-brown or blackish, with faint traces of transverse mark- 

 ings, but with reniform white instead of ochreous. I have taken this 

 form at Greenwich, and have a long series of it taken by the Rev. G. 

 H. Eaynor in Wicken Fen ; Mr. Percy Russ has captured a considerable 

 number of this variety, with var. lunina and the type, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Sligo. Mr. Collins, of Warrington, takes this form a few 

 miles from that town, together with the type and var. lunina. Mr. 

 Reid writes : " This species is very scarce and local here (Pitcaple, 

 Aberdeen) ; all those I have taken are referable to var. albipuncta. I 

 have not seen any other forms here " (in litt.). 



P. var. lunina, Haw. = var. intermedia, Tutt. (1) dlbo-lunina. 



