26 VARIETIES OF NOCTIL32 



ally to refer to those forms of tritici which are without longitudinal 

 markings. These specimens, whitish-grey, slate-colour, yellowish- 

 ochreous, brown, reddish-brown, intense black, with every interme- 

 diate colour, have every line, every mark the same as Hiibner's cursoria 

 and every one else's cursoria, but they are tritici, taken in copulation 

 with streaked tritici, and occur in equal abundance with these tritici, 

 some forms, streaked and unstreaked, being of equal rarity. The great 

 mass of these forms in my possession came from one locality, Deal, 

 but I have a very large number of tritici from other localities, thanks 

 to the kindness of my numerous correspondents. Misled by the text- 

 books, I considered all these striking unstreaked specimens as cursoria, 

 and, like many others, put them in my cabinet as such. Newman gives 

 Kent as a locality for cursoria, but I do not believe anything of this 

 form which we can look upon as at all distinct from tritici is obtainable 

 on our Kent coast, and there is no doubt that the endless variation 

 from grey- white to rich red-brown and black, precludes the idea of 

 selecting one special form and saying, " This is cursoria" to the 

 exclusion of all others, simply because they are of a different ground 

 colour. 



Now with regard to true cursoria. A well-developed local form 

 of this " non pale-costa " part of the group is obtainable on many parts 

 of the coast, which seems at first sight sufficiently distinct to call a 

 species ; but this form is in itself very inconstant. It is distinct in 

 itself, but has a great number of local races and forms ; and since our 

 correspondents send us picked insects which they themselves are able 

 to distinguish as belonging to cursoria and not to the allied tritici, it is 

 difficult to say how reliable the forms are, or whether, if one obtained 

 an immense series of tritici and cursoria from the same districts, they 

 would exhibit the same distinctness they certainly appear to do. To 

 return, the Lancashire specimens have generally, in the " non pale- 

 costa " type, a well-developed dark mark in the lower half of the 

 reniform. This seems to be there a most constant character, but I 

 have tritici from Deal with this same character well developed, and 

 some undoubted cursoria forms are without it. From Sligo, where my 

 kind friend, Mr. Percy Euss, gets cursoria perhaps more abundantly 

 than any other collector, I have a long series, but no trace of this 

 special development appears except in two specimens, and then only 

 slightly ; neither does there appear to be this development among 

 the cursoria from the Welsh coast. On the Scotch coast some 

 marvellous specimens are obtainable, characteristic ochreous curscrii 

 leading up to perfectly melanic forms. To me a very strange and 

 important problem presents itself: Why is it that in all these 

 localities none of the magnificent forms white, slate-colour, black 

 cursoria-like forms of tritici are present ? I am assured by collectors 

 from these localities, that the great mass of variation of the forms 

 without pale costa3 that I get at Deal is not obtainable in their 

 localities ; and when Mr. Percy Russ looked over my collection some 

 time ago, with all his experience he said he had never met with such 

 forms, and I think he gave up altogether the attempt to solve the 

 problem which species many of my specimens represented. But now 

 comes another important matter. Cursoria is looked upon as an insect 

 without a pale costa, but I have seen some splendid varieties from 

 Sligo, the Lancashire and Cheshire coasts, the Welsh coasts and other 



