34 VARIETIES OP NOCTTLZE 



5. Reddish-fuscous, with characters of 3 and 4 combined = fusco- 

 variegata. 



D. Ground colour blackish-brown or blackish-fuscous. 



1. Blackish-fuscous, with darker stigmata and strigge, white line at 



outer margin = dubia, Haw. 



2. Blackish-fuscous, with stigmata paler = nigricans, Linn. 

 3. Smoky-brown, paler strigse and ochreous reniform fumosa, 



Godart. 

 4. Sooty-brown, with yellow strigse, and indistinct stigmata = var. 



marshallana, Westwd. 

 5. Blackish-brown, with darker transverse lines and stigmata, border 



of reniform white (almost unicolorous) = nrsina, Godart. 



E. Ground colour black. 



1. Black, 3 stigmata yellowish, transverse lines yellowish = carbonea, 



Hb. 

 2. Black, 2 stigmata yellowish, transverse lines pale grey = fumosa, 



Haw. 



3. Black, with paler strigse and a row of white spots = fumosa, Fab. 

 4. Smoky-black, unicolorous, except outline of stigmata rather paler 



= fuliginea, Godart. 



A. Ground colour grey. 



a. var. pallida, mihi. This is a most unusual variety and but 

 rarely captured. It has the ground colour of the anterior wings of a 

 pale grey, with the faintest possible trace of a reddish tint, the stigmata 

 and transverse lines being only indicated, as they are of almost the 

 same shade as the ground colour. I have but very few specimens, and 

 have only seen them from the Greenwich marshes and from Deal. 



/3. var. flavo-pallida, mihi. This is like the previous variety so 

 far as the pale ground colour is concerned, but instead of the stigmata 

 being of almost the same greyish tint as the ground colour, they are 

 yellowish and much more distinct. It is, however, also a rare variety, 

 and, so far as I at present know, confined to our Southern counties, as 

 I have specimens from different localities in Kent only. 



B. Ground colour pale reddish. 



a. var. rufa, mihi. Anterior wings of a pale reddish tint, with the 

 basal, elbowed and subterminal lines of a somewhat paler shade than 

 the ground colour; the orbicular tending to merge in the ground 

 colour, the clavif orm indistinct, slightly ochreous outlined with darker, 

 the reniform more or less ochreous. The hind wings grey with the 

 base paler. This is altogether a more obsolete and less distinctly 

 marked variety than ruris, which has well-developed yellow stigmata 

 and strigse. My specimens came from Greenwich and Deal. 



/3. var. ruris, Haw. Haworth's diagnosis of this variety is as 

 follows : " Noctua. Alis sordide rufis stigmatibus tribus strigisque 

 flavicantibus " (' Lepidoptera Britannica/ p. 221). This is a fairly 

 common variety in Kent, but I believe it is comparatively rare in the 

 North of England and in Scotland, where the darker varieties pre- 

 ponderate, although I have one specimen from Aberdeen, and another 

 from Hartlepool. It runs, by intermediate forms, into all the other 

 varieties having the same ground colour. I have also taken this form 

 in the Isle of Wight. 



