4:0 VARIETIES OF NOCTUJE 



transverse lined form, at any rate in Britain. In both these forms, 

 the lines are sometimes more or less obsolete and the stigmata vary 

 excessively. In some pale specimens, the stigmata are obsolete and 

 lost in the ground colour, in others, the lower part of the reniform is 

 strongly marked with black, while the remainder of this and the other 

 stigmata are obsolete. In some darker specimens, the stigmata stand 

 out strikingly pale (in the original ground colour), while in others, the 

 stigmata are unicolorous with the darker colour. The claviform is 

 generally but poorly developed, but, in some specimens, it is remark- 

 ably well developed. The reniform and orbicular vary exceedingly 

 in size and relative positions. It is here, perhaps, advisable to mention 

 the almost entire absence of the small wedge-shaped streaks which are 

 so characteristic of tritici and its varieties. There is also a small 

 longitudinal basal streak varying in intensity, and occasionally the 

 extreme outer margin of the wing is particularly dark as in certain 

 varieties of tritici. The nervures are sometimes noticeably paler than 

 the rest of the wing but not so frequently, nor so well-marked, as in the 

 allied species. Hufnagel's type is described as : "Yellowish-grey, 

 with two brown curved dentated, and two undulated transverse lines " 

 ( Berlin Magazin,' p. 496). Of the general variation in this species 

 we read : " It varies considerably in the colour of the fore wings, 

 from a silvery-grey or pale buff to a deep fulvous, reddish or brownish- 

 red, and considerably irrorated with darker atoms, especially towards 

 the centre of the wing ; the costa being marked with several dark 

 small spots, arranged in pairs corresponding with the origin of the 

 strigge, which are distinct and four in number, one near the base, a 

 second more irregular before the inner stigma, another much curved, 

 and consisting of small arches beyond the outer stigma ; these strigae 

 being pale, and each margined with a dusky line on each side. Near 

 the apex of the wing is a more irregular dark striga, the margin of the 

 wing being marked with a row of dark dots. The hind wings are 

 pale, and margined with a broad dusky edge, succeeded by a slender 

 pale line. On the underside all the wings are of a yellowish-white 

 with black dots in the middle, and a row of submarginal dots " 

 (Humphrey and Westwood's 'British Moths,' p. 123). Guenee 

 ( Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 285) writes : " This species varies much, but 

 it is so distinct that one is not easily deceived by it," and yet Guenee 

 treats var. sagitta, Hb. as a far-away species. Newman says : " The 

 colour is pale grey tinged with ochreous or brown, and presenting in 

 different specimens almost every shade of colour from pale ochreous- 

 grey to dark brown " (' British Moths,' p. 329). There are two or 

 three very noteworthy characters in this species, (1) the pale nervures, 

 (2) the comparative absence of the cuneiform spots, (3) the darkening 

 ef the lower part the reniform. Of course, these all occur in the allied 

 tritici, but, what is exceptional in the latter species becomes the rule 

 in cursoria. The first group A of my classified list is exactly 

 parallel with a similar group in tritici, and it is only a most practised 

 eye that can separate them from tritici. I am especially indebted to 

 Messrs. P. Buss and T. Baxter for a splendid series of this species. 



The following is the best classified list I can make of the 

 varieties I at present know : 



A. Ground colour slaty-grey. 

 a. Without pale costa = var. ccerulea. 

 b, -With pale costa = var. costa-ccerulea. 



