IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 21 



lectors, obtained large numbers of fine varieties of cursoria for us, 

 besides those obtained by the professional collectors in Shetland. The 

 Welsh and Liverpool coasts have also produced some numbers during 

 the last few years. This has given us material for study, which does 

 not seem to have existed for the last quarter of a century at least, and 

 perhaps not then. Most of our varieties of this group are highly 

 prized by Continental collectors, and one of them remarked to me that 

 " it was impossible to imagine how much some, apparently very con- 

 stant, Continental species did vary in Britain." Having, therefore, 

 altered my original opinions very considerably, I entered into the dis- 

 cussion of these species at length (' Entomologist,' vol. xxi., pp. 171- 

 176 and pp. 198-202), and not only pointed out the differences between 

 these species, but also dealt with the great general phases of their 

 variation, as based on the presence or absence of a " pale costa " in 

 each species. The conclusions I then arrived at, I am now perfectly 

 satisfied are correct, and there is not the remotest doubt that tritici, 

 cursoria and obelisca are thoroughly distinct species, and that aquilina 

 is simply a variety of tritici. 



Not only British, but Continental lepidopterists have been inclined to 

 sink the species in this group, as vars. of one very widely variable species. 

 In the ' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' vol.xix.,pp. 278-279, Mr. 

 W. Warren writes : " One summer, many years ago, I beat out of some 

 ivy which covered the wall of a garden in this town (Cambridge), a 

 great variety of common NOCTU^E, and among them numerous speci- 

 mens of Agrotis nigricans and tritici, and two each of aquilina and 

 obelisca. I remember having been much surprised at the time, at the 

 occurrence of the last two species, the examples of which I still 

 possess ; but as an explanation, which will most likely equally surprise 

 most of those who read it, I send the following notice, translated from 

 the ( Jahrbiicher des Nassauischen Yereins fiir Naturkunde,' xxxiii- 

 xxxiv, 1880-1881, p. 87. Perhaps some of our English entomologists 

 may be able to corroborate the truth of a proposition, which, so far as 

 I can find, has never yet been ventured here, that nigricans, tritici, 

 aquilina and obelisca are all variant forms of one and the same species." 

 Mr. Warren then adds the translation referred to : " A. tritici, L., is 

 certainly the most variable of all our Noci U^E, in size, markings, and 

 colour ; nay, even the antennae seem not to be quite the same in all 

 examples. We had an opportunity of assuring ourselves on this point 

 very completely. The devastation caused in vineyards on the frontiers 

 of Moravia, recorded by Treitschke in vol. x., pt. 2, p. 19, of Ochsen- 

 heimer's work, has been repeated in our neighbourhood, at Ockelheim, 

 near Bingen, in the years 1871 and 1872, to such an extent, that many 

 individuals had their vineyards destroyed. Hundreds of Iarva3 were 

 collected here in both years, of which the following description was 

 taken : 'Very much like those of segetum, averaging an inch in length, 

 yet very unequal in size, cylindrical, stout in proportion to their 

 length ; colour, that of the surface of the ground, sometimes lighter, 

 sometimes darker, varying from dirty whitish-yellow to dark 

 red-brown and yellow-brown. Head semicircular, light brown, 

 with two dark lines ; on the crown, a collection of black spots. Plate 

 on second segment black-brown, with a central line and two side lines 

 paler. Dorsal surface always lighter than that of the sides, in which 

 respect there exists a likeness to the larvae of the Caradrinidoe. Dorsal 



