IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 131 



f). var. obsoleta, mihi. Anterior wings unicolorous dark grey, with 

 no pale markings whatever, except the trifid mark made up of the 

 reniform, and a bifid patch joined below it. I have this variety from 

 Mr. Finlay of Morpeth, Mr. Russ of Sligo, and it is obtained by Mr. 

 Harrison of Barnsley. 



9. var. pallida, mihi. Anterior wings dark grey, but the white 

 central median line developed into a broad white band, including the 

 claviform, orbicular and reniform, and extending over the whole of 

 the centre of the wing. This is an extreme development of Ha worth's 

 var. gramineus. I have this variety from Sligo and also from Yorkshire 

 localities. 



i. var. megala, Alph. In 1883, Dr. Staudinger had in his trade 

 list a doubtful variety of this species from Turkestan. The name I 

 find is also retained (as a distinct species, however) in the last trade 

 catalogue of Herr Heyne, Leipzig. Of this variety Mr. Dobree 

 writes : " I obtained a male, which is small, and closely resembles 

 tricuspis, Esp., differing only in that the ground colour, blotch, and 

 markings are all fainter, giving the insect a more generally unicolorous 

 look." This would appear to be closely allied to our var. obsoleta. 



K. var. albineura, Bdv. Boisduval, in his * Icones ' &c., pi, 74, fig. 

 4, figures a variety of graminis, which I have been unable to refer to. 

 In his ' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 176, Guenee writes : " I have not 

 seen in nature Boisduval's albineura, which appears to be simply a 

 variety of graminis;" and in the ' Entomologisk Tidskrift,' 1884, p. 

 161, referring to this variety, Herr Sven writes: "Liknar hufvud- 

 formen (var. albipuncta, Sven), men cellerna aro svarta uti framvin- 

 garnes basal-och mellanfalt, samt nara utkanten," so that it would 

 apparently be closely allied to Esper's tricuspis, although from Herr 

 Sven treating them as distinct it could hardly be a synonym of this 

 variety. 



A. var. albipuncta, Sven. Herr Sven, * Entomologisk Tidskrift,' 

 1884, p. 161, describes a variety as : " f ramvingarne rodbruna, med 

 svartaktiga ribbor, samt en hvit punkt i njurflackens bakkant, $> , 

 Sallsynt ; " i.e., fore wings red-brown with blackish nervures, and 

 with a white spot at the lower corner of the reniform. 



ft. var. brunnea, Sven. Sven, ' Entomologisk Tidskrift,' 1884, p. 

 161, describes his var. brunnea as: " f ramvingarnes grundfarg rod- 

 brun ; " i.e. fore wings with the ground colour red-brown, but this is 

 so general a description that it would not only include vars. rufa and 

 rufo-costa, but his own var. albipuncta as well as the albineura of Bois- 

 duval and the tricuspis of Esper, so that the name is useless as a varietal 

 one. 



Aporophyla, Gn., australis, Bdv. 



This is an exceedingly variable species, and the type from Southern 

 Europe differs a great deal from most of our British forms. Our 

 British specimens generally have the markings sharper, more clearly 

 defined, and black instead of brown, but our specimens vary very much 

 in intensity inter se, and the Continental specimens even more perhaps 

 than our own. Some of our specimens are pale and almost devoid of 

 markings, others are very dark, but we do not in England appear to get 

 the very dark variety orientalis referred by some authors to this species. 

 There is running through the different varieties, Continental and 



