IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 91 



female. It has " the anterior wings dull brown, with an abbreviated, 

 followed by a complete basal line ; the orbicular small and faintly out- 

 lined ; reniform outlined in white ; a pale angulated line directly 

 beyond reniform ; another pale line parallel to hind margin ; extreme 

 hind margin slaty grey. Hind wings dark grey, base paler, lunule 

 darker." Freyer, in his ' Neuere Beitraege,' &c., vol. iv., pi. 371, 

 figures both sexes of this species. His fig. 1 represents a " male, of a 

 pale greyish brown ground colour, quite grey at base, with a short 

 dark basal streak under the base of the median nervure, a fine double 

 black basal transverse line, followed by a distinct orbicular and large 

 reniform, both outlined in pale ; the claviform is distinct and dark 

 brown ; a double line runs from base of reniform to inner margin ; a 

 transverse row of small white dots, followed by a wavy line near hind 

 margin ; median area mottled with brown, outer area very dark grey. 

 Hind wings pale grey, with a distinct lunule and darker hind margin." 

 His fig. 2 is a female, " marked like fig. 1, but a little darker in ground 

 colour. Hind wings darker grey." Haworth's secalina, var. {$ (' Le- 

 pidoptera Britannica,' p. 210) would appear to be the darker form of 

 this species, his a representing the type, his /? representing the form 

 with the HH -like mark under the stigmata. We have, therefore, only 

 to deal with two forms : 1. Without an HH -like mark and without a 

 partially-developed central band, = unanimis. 2. With an HH -like 

 mark and darker central area, var. secalina, Haw. 



a var. secalina, Haw. Ground colour of anterior wings dark 

 umber-brown, with the transverse lines as in the type. The claviform 

 developed into an HH -like mark, which reaches from the transverse 

 line, before almost, or quite to that beyond, the stigmata ; the central 

 area between these transverse lines, and above and below this dark 

 mark, darker than the ground colour, forming an incomplete band 

 from the costa to the inner margin. Hind wings grey-brown (as in 

 type), with a distinct discoidal spot. The description of Haworth's 

 secalina, var. /?, is as follows : " Alis anticis lineola longa nigra in 

 medio fasciae ut in sequente, stigmate antico oblongo magis antrorsum 

 inclinante ; posticis fuscis, ciliis rufo-cinereis " (' Lepidoptera Britan- 

 nica ' pp. 210, 211). 



Apamea, Och., didyma, Esp. 



We now arrive at probably the most protean lepidopteron (with 

 the exception perhaps of Agrotis tritici) found in Britain, Apamea 

 didyma, Esp. There exists in different specimens every intermediate 

 shade of ground colour, from pale whitish grey to intense black ; but 

 probably the different shades of ground colour may be roughly grouped 

 into grey, reddish brown, and black. The grey colour, however, is 

 mixed in many specimens with a very pale yellow-ochreous tint, and 

 this is especially noticeable in some of those specimens which form (1) 

 the dark costa group and (2) the banded group, where the outer area 

 and inner margin are conspicuously paler than the rest of the wing, 

 in each of the two first of these ground colours (grey and red) we find 

 tnree very distinct varieties (in their extreme forms), and one less dis- 

 tinct one, but yet sufficiently so to be separately mentioned. This 

 latter is an unicolorous form with the reniform faintly developed, 

 but with the transverse lines obsolete, and the whole wing area, 



