60 VARIETIES OF NOCTUJE 



two median stigmata pale, incomplete (blending in their upper parts 

 with the costal area, which is paler than the ground-colour), darker in 

 the centre, separated and preceded by black or reddish-brown ; the 

 origin of the transverse lines forming black streaks on the costa. 

 Inferior wings ochreous-white, with a blackish lunule and indistinct 

 subterminal band." " The two sexes are very similar in colour, but 

 the male has the antennae strongly ciliated, which separates this species 

 from its neighbours" (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 333). 



a. var. subccerulea, Stdgr. This name was given by Dr. Staudinger 

 to the variety figured by Her rich- Schaffer under the typical name 

 subrosea. His diagnosis is : " Al. ant. caBrulescentibus " (' Catalog,' 

 p. 80), and he gives as localities " Livonia and Finland." The difference 

 between British and these north Continental specimens is almost 

 identical with that in the species hyperborea, in which the same ashy-grey 

 colour of the Scandinavian and Finland specimens is replaced by brown 

 and red in ours. Herrich-Schaffer writes : " Herr Kefferskein sends 

 me under this name subrosea, another species from Lapland. It is as 

 large as f estiva, of a light ashy-grey colour, the claviform reddish- 

 brown, both the ordinary stigmata pale-grey, &c." (' Systematische 

 Bearbeitung ' &c., p. 59). The same author figures both sexes. Fig. 516 

 is " a male, with the anterior wings purplish-grey, with a pale-grey costa, 

 and single costal streaks at the commencement of the transverse lines, 

 which are reddish ; a dark (reddish-brown) quadrate spot between 

 stigmata extending to a point beyond the orbicular ; the median nervure 

 white ; the space directly below the stigmata reddish ; the space 

 between the elbowed and subterminal lines purplish ; area outside 

 subterminal, grey. Hind wings orange-grey with a distinct lunule. 

 Fig. 622, $ . Colour greyer, less red than in fig. 516, with a central 

 transverse grey shade extending under quadrate spot to inner margin ; 

 costa almost unicolorous with rest of wing. Hind wings grey, base 

 paler" (' Systematische Bearbeitung ' &c., figs. 516 and 622). 



Agrotis, Och., corticea, Hb. 



This is another excessively variable species, and has the different 

 varieties much more closely interwoven than in the allied exclamationis. 

 As in that species the ground colour varies from pale grey to black, 

 but reddish-brown forms are comparatively rare, probably owing to 

 the darker forms being so thickly irrorated with black atoms that they 

 become rather black than brown. There are the four ordinary trans- 

 verse lines, but these are much more often obsolete in this, than in 

 the allied species. . The stigmata vary very much both in size, shape, 

 and intensity of colour, the orbicular is sometimes a pale grey circle 

 or oval outlined in black, but more generally ocellated, whilst some- 

 times it is entirely black. I have never seen a specimen with it en- 

 tirely absent, although it is often very indistinct and merges into the 

 ground colour ; the claviform varies in size, shape and intensity, but 

 generally has a pale centre. In ground colour we find the prevailing 

 shades whitish-grey (putty-coloured), fuscous or smoky-grey, brown 

 with a slight reddish tinge arid black. In some specimens, there is a 

 clear whitish ground colour with obsolete lines and distinct stigmata, 

 but generally the grey forms are much irrorated with black dots ; 

 probably the two most striking forms are those in which the grey 

 colour is restricted to the central band, the basal and outer areas being 



