134 VARIETIES OF NOCTILS5 



Luperina, Bdv. 



This interesting genus contains a species, luteago, a variety of which 

 named ftarreMit, was long placed as a distinct species in the genus Dianthce- 

 cia. Of the other species testacea is exceedingly variable both in colour and 

 markings, the ground colour extending from pale silvery-grey to in- 

 tense black, and dark brown, the markings in many cases being almost 

 obsolete. There appears to be but little doubt that gueneei, so far as is 

 at present known, is a var. of testacea, but there is no proof yet that 

 nickerlii, Freyer, should be similarly sunk. This matter was fully dis- 

 cussed at a meeting of the City of London Entomological Society as 

 reported in the 'Entomologist's Eecord,' &c., for April 1891. The 

 silvery-grey variety captured by Mr. Baxter at St. Anne's-on-Sea, differs 

 entirely from gueneei, inasmuch that it is without the wedge-shaped 

 marks of that variety. It differs most essentially from the nickerlii of 

 Freyer and Herrich-Schaffer both in colour and markings; nickerlii 

 being ochreous, more like some fine forms Mr. A. J. Hodges has taken 

 in the Isle of Wight, so far as the markings are concerned. In the 

 present state of our knowledge, Freyer's nickerlii must be looked upon 

 as distinct. 



Luperina, Bdv., luteago, Hb. 



The type of this species does not occur in Britain, but a melanic 

 foim from the Irish coast was described as a distinct species by Mr. 

 Doubleday, under the name of barrettii, and has been generally placed 

 in the genus Dianthcecia. Hiibner's fig. 184 represents the type of 

 this species, and may be described as : "Anterior wings of a pale yel- 

 lowish colour, median nervures reddish, a reddish transverse basal line 

 with another just within the orbicular ; the stigmata very pale ; a 

 double transverse line just beyond the reniforra, and a wavy reddish 

 line parallel to the hind margin ; a dark reddish blotch between the 

 second and third transverse lines (under the stigmata), continued up 

 narrowly outside the reniform, and making another blotch on the costa 

 just outside the reniform ; hind margin dotted. Hind wings very 

 pale grey, slightly darker on the hind margin." Hiibner's argillacea 

 is, according to Dr. Staudinger, a var. of this species, whilst Guenee 

 refers Hb.-Geyer's olbiena to this species, and Esper figures 

 another form under the name of " brunneago." Of the general varia- 

 tion Guenee writes ('Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 181) : "It varies in colour 

 from a more or less pure and a more or less intense yellow to greyish 

 in some specimens." Of the varieties, the British barrettii is by far 

 the most striking, and this peculiar form is, I believe, unknown on the 

 Continent. Barrettii seems first to have been referred to this species 

 by the late Mr. Buckler, who (' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. xvi., p. 55) 

 writes : " I am constrained to believe barrettii to be an isolated and 

 melanic variety of luteago:' On the same page Mr. M'Lachlan, in a 

 footnote, writes : " When last in London, Dr. Staudinger stated to 

 me that, in his opinion, D. barrettii is a form of D. luteago," and Mr. 

 Dobre'e writes : " My continental specimens of the full-fed larvse of 

 luteago correspond exactly with Mr.Buckler's description of barrettii ( ( ~E,jit. 

 Mo. Mag.,' August, 1879), and anyone who has seen them will recog- 

 nise that this species has been quite misplaced among the Dianthcecice" 

 (in litt.). D. luteago occurs very rarely in Mecklenburgh, Pomerania, 



