IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 25 



Una on the strength of Hiibner's three figures, we must throw out all 

 idea of aquilina as a species. Boisduval, many years after, described a 

 number of varieties of tritici, including some of Hubner's so-called 

 species ; but after a few years, Guenee, when writing his < Noctuelles,' 

 vol. v., p. 289, takes Boisduval to task for referring Hubner's fictilis to 

 tritici instead of, as he considered to aquilina. Thus we find these two 

 great naturalists at variance about the matter, and we find Guenee 

 laying down the law that the type of aquilina consists of " those indi- 

 viduals of a pale, clear, brownish ground colour, with the markings, 

 stigmata, and wedge-shaped marks clearly developed." We must, 

 however, bear in mind that afterwards (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 289) 

 he includes fictilis and vitta as varieties of aquilina. To show too, how 

 little faith should be pinned in Hiibner's power to discriminate the 

 species of Agrotis, it must be remembered that fictilis as well as vitta, 

 eruta, ruris and villiersii were figured by him as distinct species. Since 

 Guenee, no one, except the British authors, has ever attempted to set 

 up aquilina as a distinct species ; and no one but British lepidopterists 

 now attempts to prove what seems to me an utter impossibility. I 

 have specimens of the variety from most of those lepidopterists 

 who think they get it. Nearly all the specimens are brownish (as 

 of necessity they must be), all are taken freely where tritici 

 occurs ; most lepidopterists have a generally correct idea of what 

 aquilina ought to be, a few, however, do not seem even to understand 

 these elementary necessities. The Continental lepidopterists long ago 

 understood this question, and Hubner's figure 135 takes its true position 

 in their lists, as the type of tritici var. aquilina, his figures 535 and 536 

 being referred to other varietal forms. 



With regard to the old British authors, they had a compara- 

 tively easy task. Every new form of tritici which occurred was 

 described as a new species and named as such. The forms represented 

 by the type-names are difficult to trace, but Wood's, and Humphrey 

 and Westwood's publications have figures of most of these varieties. 



The variation of tritici is so extreme, that it is almost impossible to 

 give any idea of it. Without egotism, I may safely assert, that I have 

 one of the finest series of this species at present in existence. Some 

 500 to 600 specimens, picked from perhaps twenty or thirty times 

 that number, include some of the most magnificent forms that can be 

 imagined. The ground colour varies from pale whitish-grey to intense 

 black, but with all this variation there is one thing that immediately 

 strikes a student when a classfication or grouping is attempted, viz., that 

 all these moths can be divided into two groups (I) those that have no 

 distinct pale longitudinal markings (costal streak, nervures, &c.), but 

 have very complete transverse markings (as in typical cursoria) ; and 

 (2) those that have distinct pale longitudinal markings, with the trans- 

 verse ones broken up. I have divided my specimens upon this plan, 

 into four distinct sections according to ground colour, viz., grey, slate, 

 brown and black, and these again are distinctly graduated according 

 to the depth of these various ground colours. I place forms with the 

 same ground colour in following rows (1) with the transverse mark- 

 ings and not the longitudinal ; (2) specimens with the same ground 

 colour as the previous row but with longitudinal markings. Nearly 

 five drawers of picked tritici arranged in this way make material 

 for careful study and carry conviction with them. I wish now speci- 



