IK THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 10? 



rosea, lineolis literacformibus in medio, nigris." " Stigmata in medio 

 ut in ultima (marginibus nigris interrupts solum conspicua), at longe 

 obsoletiora, margine nigro fracto solum conspicua ; qui marge format 

 lineolas literaBformes nigras." This species has always been included 

 by Continental lepidopterists with erratricula, Hb., which appears to 

 me simply a variety of bicoloria. The specimens captured by the 

 Messrs. Salvage, at Forres, in the summer of 1888, were rather paler 

 than those we obtain in the South of England. There is some variation 

 in the width of the median band, also in its intensity and the develop- 

 ment of the longitudinal < -mark under the stigmata. Guenee also refers 

 erratricula, Hb. to this species, but this, I think, is decidedly an error. 

 It is the most constant of all the British species of Miana. 



Phothedes, Ld., captiuncula, Tr. 



Treitschke's diagnosis of the type of this species ' Die Schmetter- 

 linge,' &c., II., p. 96, is as follows : " Alis anticis fuscis, fascia media 

 obscuriore, stigmate reniformi fasciaque externa albides." Our British 

 specimens differ from the Continental specimens, being, as a rule, 

 greyer and more unicolorous, so that Staudinger treats our form as a 

 variety. Newman, in his ' British Moths,' p. 309, referring to Her- 

 rich-Schaffer's figures 173 and 174, which are very variegated, says : 

 " They resemble the Irish rather than the English specimens, but are 

 more variegated than any I possess." The English variety is first 

 noticed in Stainton's ' Annual ' for 1855, where we find Doubleday 

 given as the nomenclator, and a comparison is drawn between this 

 species, M. fasciuncula and M. strigilis. Mr. E. Birchall thus writes 

 of the Irish specimens : " Common near Gal way. The Irish speci- 

 mens are smaller, and much more richly coloured than any English 

 ones I have seen " (' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' vol. iii., p. 74). 



a. var. expolita, Dbdy. In Stainton's 'Annual' for 1855, p. 41, 

 we find : " Taken near Darlington." " The species may be readily 

 know^n, being much smaller and darker than fasciuncula, and extremely 

 glossy, the posterior wings are unicolorous grey, with pale grey cilia ; 

 the shape of the anterior wings being also very distinctive, the hinder 

 margin not being elbowed as in fasciuncula and strigilis." Staudinger 

 writes of var. expolita : " fere unicolor grisescens," while Newman 

 (' British Moths,' p. 309) figures both the variegated type and the 

 more unicolorous expolita. 



Celcena, St., haworthii, Curt. 



This species, closely allied to the members of the genera Helo- 

 tropha and Hydrcecia, varies considerably both in ground colour and in 

 the markings. The colour varies from yellowish brown through deep 

 red and purplish brown to blackish grey. The orbicular varies from 

 complete absence to a clear white or ochreous spot and the reniform, 

 besides being very variable in shape and size, is in some specimens 

 indistinctly marked, in others ochreous, and in others white. There 

 is also a considerable amount of variation in the number of white 

 nervures, some specimens having no trace of them. The type, is 

 described in Curtis' 'British Entomology,' 260, as follows : "Yellowish 

 brown, variegated with rosy scales. Superior wings with a few scat- 

 tered white scales, the costa with three yellowish spots, and three 



