2 VARIETIES OF NOCTUJB 



line dark, divided by a pale line. Beneath the dark, straight, broad, 

 sub-dorsal line, there is indicated another fine lighter line. The 

 blackish-brown spiracles stand on the border where the dark lateral 

 and the pale ventral colours unite. Obliquely above and under each 

 spiracle is a black-brown, horny, raised spot ; these spots, like the 

 plates on the second and anal segments, are weapons of defence for the 

 larvae when forcing their way into the ground ; and there are others 

 besides, in the place of the spiracles on the first segment, in the middle 

 of the back, on the sub-dorsal lines, perpendicularly above and beneath 

 each leg ; and on the lateral edge, the spots, like the head, are beset 

 with short bristly hairs.' The larvae lived exactly like earthworms, 

 by day, underground, and by night only, on the surface, in order to 

 feed. Salad and such like succulent plants were more relished by 

 them than the tenderest shoots of the vine. The pupa, which possesses 

 an extremly thin shell, lay in an earthen cocoon. Dr. Pagenstecher 

 bred a large number of the larvae with the same results as myself. I have 

 already given an account of my first brood in the ' Jahrb. des Nass. 

 Naturvereins ' for 1871-1872. Later on, the larvae had again 

 disappeared, without any human means having been of any avail 

 against them. In September, occasionally, a few pass through their 

 stages, and appear in the perfect state as rather smaller specimens than 

 those of the first brood ; but the large majority hibernate as larvae. 

 The perfect insects conceal themselves by day in earth, in deep 

 crevices of the bark of trees near to the ground, in chinks of stones &c. 

 Among the large number of examples reared in the course of these 

 broods, there were those figured by Hiibner as fumosa, fig. 153, 

 aquilina, 135, obelisca, 123, fictilis, 479 and 710, unicolor, 544, eruta, 

 623, carbonea, 700, praticola, 567, vitta and aquilina, 533-535, ruris, 

 416 ; besides the following figured by Herrich-Schaffer-ackm&rata, 121, 

 rustica, 495, fumosa, 526, tritici, 527 and 552, obelisca, 529 and 553. 

 All were plentifully represented, and it could not but be that all 

 belonged to one and the same species, united as they were by numerous 

 intermediate forms. Among them were several forms, especially of 

 fumosa, of a beautiful lilac tint, which, however, faded into grey in the 

 course of a year. One obelisca was entirely lilac-coloured without 

 markings, with a white costal streak. Of varieties collected at the 

 same time by night, there are besides to be mentioned a pale-yellowish 

 example devoid of markings, with perfectly black outlines of the 

 stigmata ; and one found by Dr. Schirm, leaden-coloured throughout 

 without markings on the fore-wings, of \\ hich only the margin of the 

 renif orm stigma is indicated by a black spot. It is not improbable that 

 there are, besides, other nearly-related forms not occurring here, which 

 now pass as separate species, that likewise belong to tritici. The insect 

 is a native not only of the district of the so-called European fauna, 

 but, along with many others of our species of Agrotis, of North America 

 also"(' Jahrbiicher des Nassanischen Vereins fiir Naturkunde', xxxiii 

 xxxiv., 1880-1881, p. 87. ' Die Schuppenfliigler des kgl. Kegierungs- 

 bezirks Wiesbaden und ihre Entwicklungsgeschichte,' von Dr. Adolf 

 Bossier). It is of course quite possible that these were all variable 

 forms of one species, with varieties resembling true nigricans and true 

 obelisca, or, on the other hand, there may have been all these species 

 mixed up from so many larvae, for it must be remembered that these 

 specimens were bred from larvae taken at large, and as I do not for a 



