IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 69 



a. var. obotrictica, Schmidt. Anterior wings of a clear white 

 ground colour, with a faint ochreous tinge under the stigmata and 

 towards the inner margin ; faint traces of the basal, elbowed and sub- 

 terminal lines and stigmata, generally of an ochreous tint, are present. 

 Hind wings pure white. This is an almost unicolorous white form, 

 and I have only seen specimens from Portland. I have other speci- 

 mens, but, beyond that they came from the south coast of England, 

 I have no knowledge of their exact locality. Like desillii of Pierre t, 

 this name really includes a group of local forms, forming a local race 

 of a white ground colour, of which Freyer's weissenbornii is a particular 

 form, and included in the genera" notes of Herr Schmidt, though 

 without reference. Since Freyer's ;pecial name for the more strongly 

 marked white form takes precedence of Schmidt's name, I would 

 restrict the latter to those almost unicolorous white specimens, men- 

 tioned by him and not referred to by Freyer. Schmidt's note on the 

 subject is as follows : " Agrotis obotrictica. This beautiful moth 

 appears in July, and becomes the more interesting since it resembles 

 ripce, Tr., Hub. and H.-S., dev(s)ilii, Pierr. and deserticola, Ev. so much, 

 and yet the specimens differ again like the others among themselves, 

 which makes it doubtful whether all these belong to one species and are 

 local varieties, or whether they are different species. This moth varies 

 in colour and markings from a pure white ground with indistinct spots 

 to partly yellowish with more or less distinct markings, yet the moths 

 remain very plain and pale even in the darkest specimens ; on the 

 whole, there is much more white than in any of the allies, and it differs 

 most from the yellow deserticola. It is also considerably larger than 

 dev(s)ilii and ripce from Konigsberg. Hering and others take this 

 form for a distinct species. He named them after the old Mecklenberg 

 race "'Obotrictica." Lederer considers them all as belonging to one 

 species, and mine as var. obotrictica. Hering and Herrich-Schaffer, 

 who, through me possess the most varied deviations, have not ex- 

 pressed an opinion so far as I know. To the want of knowledge of 

 the life history of all these allies and the scarcity of specimens in 

 collections, is attributable the difference of opinion ; then again, as a 

 local form, it agrees with many species of Agrotis, and this, therefore, 

 is not reliable. It is to be hoped, that further researches will lead to 

 an ultimate decision " (< Stett. ent. Zeit.,' 1858, p. 377). The forms 

 above treated by Herr Schmidt as distinct, are now well known to be 

 variations of one species, of which ripce is the type, and obotrictica is 

 simply one in a long series of intermediate forms, leading from speci- 

 mens which are pure white to others which are deep blackish or 

 slaty-grey. 



j3. var. weissenbornii) Fr. Freyer's weissenbornii may be described 

 as having the " anterior wings of a pale whitish-ochreous ground 

 colour, with a single transverse basal line ; claviform of ground 

 colour, outlined in black ; the circular orbicular and reniform also 

 similarly outlined. Hind wings white with ochreous tinge " ('Neuere 

 Beitrage ' &c., p. 140 and plate 466, fig. 3). Of this variety Staudinger 

 in his ' Catalog,' p. 86, simply writes " albicans." This form is taken 

 at Portland with the previous form, probably also in other localities. 



y. var. desillii, Pier. In Duponchel and Godart's work we find : 

 " Here is the description given by M. Pierret in the ' Ann. Ent. Soc. 

 Fr.,' 1839, p. 95 : < The superior wings are of a reddish-grey, some- 



