70 VARIETIES OP NOCTUJB 



times a little yellow, with three undulated, whitish transverse lines, 

 more or less bordered with brown. The exterior of these lines is 

 toothed. The orbicular stigmata are small, of an ashy-brown colour, 

 the reniform is margined by a more or less distinct whitish line, the 

 claviform is narrow and short ; a little outside the exterior line one 

 notices a transverse series of white dots, each placed between two 

 black points, sometimes very indistinct. The posterior border is 

 marked with a transverse series of black spots. The costa is some- 

 times ashy-grey, sometimes white enough to contrast strongly with 

 the ground colour ; the nervures ordinarily white, but sometimes grey 

 outlined with brownish. The inferior wings white in the males, 

 brownish in the females, but paler towards the base, with darker 

 nervures. The external edge of the wing presents a dark brown line, 

 going in an attenuated form almost to the abdominal margin where it 

 disappears '." Duponchel then adds : " This beautiful variety oiripa> 

 was found for the first time in 1837, in the environs of St. Saveur-le- 

 Vicomte, in Normandy, by M. Bottin-Desilles. He obligingly sent 

 me a fine specimen of each sex " (' Histoire naturelle ' &c., iii., p. 476). 

 Of this variety Guenee writes : " Not having seen the Baltic speci- 

 mens (referred to the type), I am not able to define the differences 

 which separate them from var. desillii. The differences in the figures 

 of Hiibner and Freyer appear to be very considerable " ( Noctuelles,' 

 vol. v., p. 284). Staudinger simply writes of this variety in his 

 ' Catalog,' p. 86, " flavescens." 



It will be seen from the above, that M. Pierret's description is a 

 very comprehensive one, comprising as it does both " pale-costa " and 

 " non pale-costa " forms. I have the pale ochreous-red form without 

 the pale costa, from South Wales and the Devon coast. This form is 

 erroneously named as the type in the British Museum collection. 



S. var. albicosta, mihi. This is practically included in the desillii 

 of Pierret, who describes reddish-ochreous forms, with and without 

 a pale costa, under the same varietal name. The anterior wings are 

 of a pale reddish-ochreous colour, with the basal and elbowed lines 

 fine, single, and fuscous in colour, the extreme outer margin beyond 

 the subterminal line being very pale ; the claviform, orbicular and 

 reniform very indistinct, traces of a row of cuneiform markings. Hind 

 wings white. I have this form from the South Devon coast. 



. var. nebulosa, St. This variety is described as follows : " Fore 

 wings of a pale hoary or whitish-grey ; the costa slightly clouded 

 with fuscous, with a cloud of the same hue at the base of the wings, 

 divided from the teliform stigma by a very obscure, waved transverse 

 striga ; anterior stigma round, small, its centre and margin dusky ; 

 posterior, reniform clouded with fuscous and black ; behind this is an 

 arcuated submoniliform striga, beyond which, the rest of the wing is 

 deep fuscous, with an undulated white striga composed of approxi- 

 mating wedge-shaped spots ; in the margin itself is a series of minute, 

 black, subtriangular dots ; cilia pale ash. Posterior wings of the 

 male, pure white ; of the female, nearly of an uniform pale cinereous, 

 with the stigmata and costal spots nearly obsolete. Taken near 

 Barnstaple, in July, 1827 " ('Illus. Haust.' &c., 2, pi. xxii., fig. 1). 

 This is a sub- var. of the type, agreeing with it except that it has no 

 reddish tint to the inner margin, and therefore has the ground colour 

 entirely grey. The costa, and basal and outer areas are clouded with 

 fuscous. 



