IN THfc BRITISH ISLANDS. 83 



thoracis dorso abdomineque cinereis. Alse superiores postice undu- 

 latim et striatim plus minus cinerese. Margo tenuior etiam cinerascit. 

 Posticse alse fuscse, ciliis cinereis." Hiibner also figures (246) pinastri 

 with normal anterior but bluish posterior wings. This latter is, with- 

 out doubt due to overcolouring. Newman, in his * British Moths,' p. 

 287, says : " This is one of those moths which are constant in the 

 arrangement and tint of their colours. I am unable to select from 

 among the numerous specimens which have reached my hands, a single 

 individual to which I can possibly allude as a variety." I 

 have seen no good varieties ; but some specimens have the dark 

 portions of the anterior . wings much more intense than others. 

 Possibly the greatest amount of variation exists in the quantity 

 of pale longitudinal markings near the hind margin, some 

 having a large number of short longitudinal streaks, especially 

 near the apex, others being almost without them ; while some have the 

 pale marking (from which it gets its English name " the bird's wing ") 

 near the anal angle, and its continuation along the inner margin of a 

 much clearer grey than others ; in fact, I have some where this mark- 

 ing is almost absent, and others where it is quite whitish grey with 

 scarcely any darker shading. I have one specimen much below the 

 average size. Guenee in his ( Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 146, writes : 

 " Superior wings brown-black, with the inner margin and a large 

 bilobed spot at the anal angle, of a testaceous grey marked with brown 

 streaks." 



a. var. pinastri, L. The Linnaean description ' Sy sterna Naturae,' 

 12th edition, p. 851, No. 160, is as follows : " Noctua spirilinguis cris- 

 tata, alis deflexis nigris : margine dorsali posticoque pallidis." " Cristse 

 in dorso ipsius abdominis 4 pone thoracem gibbum ; characteres in 

 alis atri." That is to say the ground colour is black instead of 

 uscous. 



Apamea, Och. 



The interesting genus Apamea brings directly to our notice the very 

 great difficulty of dealing with the varieties of some of our species of 

 NOCTILS:, for in this genus we have some of those protean species, 

 where the ground colour varies through several shades, and where the 

 markings are so excessively variable, and yet recurring with such fre- 

 quency in the same forms in different species, that it is not surprising, 

 that our early lepidopterists considered they had many distinct species. 

 Taking the species, basilinea and pabulatricula, we have two of the 

 most constant species in the genus, so far as markings are concerned, 

 basilinea being ordinarily characterised by no specially developed 

 markings, except the ordinary waved transverse lines, while 

 pabulatricula is characterised by a strongly- developed black longi- 

 tudinal mark directly under the stigmata developing insensibly 

 into a central band. Basilinea, however, varies in colour somewhat 

 according to geographical range. The two forms of markings typically 

 represented by these species give a basis on which the development of 

 the variation in the other species appears to proceed, viz., (1) an uni- 

 colorous form with transverse lines, and (2) a more variegated form 

 with a dark longitudinal streak under the stigmata. The species of 

 this genus may be looked upon as having the anterior wings divided 



