VARIETIES OF NOCTILE 



rally much more clearly marked than the greyer type, but there is 

 considerable difference in the intensity of the markings. 



/3. var. aquatilis, Bdv., Gn. On the authority of Dr. Staudinger, 

 I add this as a variety of caliginosa. Guenee writes of it : " Shape 

 and size of caliginosa, of which it is very probably only a variety. It 

 differs from the latter in colour, which is of a whitish-grey tinged 

 with ochreous, very clear and unicolorous ; the markings are scarcely 

 visible ; the interior wings are white, lightly powdered here and there 

 with grey. There is, under the superior wings a black cellular shade, 

 which extends along the commencement of the nervures ; body and 

 palpi greyish white. Locality : Borders of the Ural " (' Noctuelles,' 

 vol. v., p. 240). Guenee described a single specimen in Boisduval's 

 collection. 



Laphygma, Gn., exigua, Hb. 



This species is very rare in Britain, and from our specimens we 

 have very little chance of determining its range of variation. Hiibner's 

 fig. 362 (' Sammlung europaischer Schmetterlinge,' &c.) is the type and 

 may be described as having: "Anterior wings dull grey-brown with 

 three costal basal streaks, and double basal line ; stigmata pale, with a 

 dark patch between and beyond them ; a double angulated line beyond 

 the reniform and another broken line parallel to the hind margin. 

 Hind wings grey with distinct nervures." A variety is figured by 

 Hiibner under the name of fulgens, and Eambur's pygmcea, treated by 

 Guenee as a distinct species, is also considered as a variety by Dr. 

 Staudinger. Guenee's description of the type is as follows : 

 ' Superior wings, of a clear testaceous grey, lightly tinged with 

 brownish, with the median lines distinct, concolorous, geminated and 

 almost parallel. The two stigmata very distinct, the orbicular very 

 round, of a yellowish colour more or less ferruginous ; the reniform 

 interiorly of the same colour, the subterminal line pale, wavy, bordered 

 posteriorly with greyish red, and interiorly with fine black streaks ; 

 inferior wings of a transparent white, with the nervures strongly 

 brownish, and the margins shaded with deep grey brown (' Noctuelles,' 

 vol. v., p. 158). 



a. var. fulgens, Hb.-Gey. in Geyer's supplement to Hiibner's 

 " Sammlung europaischer Schmet.' &c., fig. 796, fulgens is figured with 

 the anterior wings of a " dull grey brown (as in fig. 362), with 

 double basal lines, the orbicular outlined in yellow ; a dark transverse 

 line running between the stigmata from the costa to the inner margin ; 

 reniform yellow, a double angulated line beyond the reniform, and a 

 row of white dots parallel to the hind margin. Hind wings grey, 

 paler at base, lunule darker. Guenee writes of Geyer's fulgens : " I 

 have not seen it in nature, but I believe it belongs here (i.e. as a var. of 

 exigua) ; perhaps, even it is only the type of our exigua from the south, 

 which appears to differ slightly from those of Dalmatia, if we may 

 judge from Hiibner's figure " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v.. p. 158). 



P. var. pygmcea, Kainb. This is treated by Guenee as a distinct 

 species. He writes : " I have not seen it, but place it here on the 

 testimony of M. Kainbur, who says it comes near exigua, and of Mr. 

 Boisduval, who simply considers it as an accidental variety "('Noctuelles,' 

 vol. v., p. 158). Dr. Staudinger writes : " minima, alas anteriores 

 fere unicolores, macula flava nigro-punctata " (' Catalog,' p. 110). 



