114 VARIETIES OF NOCTTLfc! 



contact) parallel to the hind margin. Hind wings pale grey, outer 

 margin dark grey, lumile and nervures still darker." 



y. var. infernalis, Ev. " Eversmann, ' Bull Mosc.,' 1842, = furva, 

 * Fauna Ural.,' p. 247," is the reference given by Guenee for this variety. 

 He also describes it as : " Differs but little from furva. It is a little 

 darker. The spaces in the stigmata are marked in brown. The dis- 

 coidal line of the under sides of the inferior wings is a little more 

 wavy, clearer, and appears a little on the upper side ; but these differ- 

 ences are very slight, and perhaps not constant. Localities : Casan, 

 Orembourg, and Ural " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 198). The specimens 

 I have from Aberdeen would apparently belong to this variety. 



8. var. silvicola, Ev. Guenee, also on p. 198, describes anothe* 

 Kussian variety as : "Superior wings still darker, almost black, with the 

 stigmata and lines more or less absorbed by the ground colour. In- 

 ferior wings of a blacker shade. Thorax and anal tuft not mixed with 

 yellow scales. Locality : Woods of the Ural." The specimens I have 

 from Sligo would appear to belong to this variety. 



Mamestra, Och., albicolon, Sepp. 



The type of this species is figured by Sepp in his ' Beschouwing 

 der Wonderen Gods,' &c., II., pi. 1, figs. 1-9 ; and is described by 

 Guenee, in his ' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 196, as : " Anterior wings of 

 a blackish grey, on which stands out strongly the little white broken 

 C, which borders the lower and outer edge of the reniform. None of 

 the other markings are very distinct." Guenee also adds: "1 have 

 never found the type in our country (France), where the following 

 variety (brunnea) is found occasionally." I have taken this dark type 

 at Deal, and have also received it from Mr. Baxter, where it was taken 

 in the neighbourhood of Lytham ; but generally our British specimens 

 are the grey albicolon of Stephens. Mr. N. F. Dobree, however, 

 writes : " I have taken albicolon through a series of years on the sand- 

 hills at the mouth of the Humber, and there the dark form predomi- 

 nates " (in litt.). Hiibner also figures a dark brown form, which 

 Guenee says " occurs occasionally in France." There is a little vari- 

 ation in the character of the pale line, which is parallel to the hind 

 margin ; in some the line is fairly complete, in others it forms a row 

 of white dots, while in others they are distinctly yellow. There is 

 also a considerable amount of variation in the colour of the hind wings, 

 this variation not being sexual ; in some specimens the hind wings 

 are entirely dark grey, in some pale grey, and in others pale grey with 

 a dark hind marginal band. One of my Deal specimens has a trans- 

 verse row of white dots between the discoidal spot and the subterminal 

 line, and it is dusted with white along the nervures. 



a. var. brunnea, mihi. This is Guenee's var. A, which he refers 

 to Hiibner's fig. 543. The note I made of Hiibner's figure is as 

 follows : " Anterior wings dark brown, but all the markings very 

 distinct." Guenee's description of the variety is as follows: 

 " Anterior wings yellowish brown, more or less pricked out in blackish, 

 with the subterminal line of a yellowish white, broken up, but well 

 marked, and the ordinary lines more distinct than in the type. Inferior 

 wings paler, and tinged with the yellow of the upper wings " (' Noc- 

 tuelles,' vol. v., p. 196). 



