72 VARIETIES OF NOCTU2E 



ochreous basal transverse line ; reniform with an ochreous outline, 

 orbicular entirely ochreous, both standing on the ochreous median 

 nervure ; all the nervures ochreous outside the reniform to the outer 

 margin. Hind wings pure white " (' Sammlung europaischer Schmet.,' 

 fig. 389). The figure, to me, looks more like a Leucania than an 

 Agrotis. 



Agrotis, Och., puta, Hb. 



The type of this species is represented by Hiibner's fig. 255, but 

 it is rather a difficult species to deal with, owing to its (the type) being 

 found so rarely in Britain and on the Continent. Guenee, in his 

 * Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 266, says : " It is necessary to bear in mind 

 that the type of this species is not the variety we get in France. The 

 type is very rare, and its precise habitat is not known." The British 

 specimens are much like the French, and very rarely approach 

 Hiibner's type in colour. It has " the outer half of the anterior wings 

 strongly tinged with red, the fringes pale, the basal half dark bluish- 

 grey, a short, black, longitudinal basal streak followed by a wavy 

 transverse line, orbicular and reniform distinct ; a transverse shade 

 from costa to inner margin between the stigmata ; a double waved line 

 beyond the reniform, three short wedge-shaped streaks on the outer 

 margin near the apex. Hind wings grey, pale at base, fringes paler" 

 (' Sammlung europaischer Schmet.,' fig. 255). In Godart and 

 Duponchel's vol. ii., pi. 67, fig. 7 of the ' Histoire naturelle,' &c., we 

 find a specimen figured as puta of a reddish tint ; and with regard to 

 this specimen we find on pp. 243, 244 : " I only know this species 

 by a single $ . The superior wings are of a greyish-yellow, the hind 

 wings of a yellowish- white with the posterior margin reddish." " I do 

 not know where it is found, but I suspect in Southern Eorope." It 

 will be noticed that Godart's figure is " reddish " tinged, while he calls 

 it " greyish-yellow " in his description. I have a single specimen from 

 Deal tinged with red and marked almost exactly as in Hiibner's figure, 

 but I never saw another. The reddish-tinged type is called erytkroxylea 

 by Treitschke, who describes it as follows : " Xylina. Alis anticis ex 

 flavo albidis, margine anteriori externoque rufescentibus, macula reni- 

 formi obscuriore " (' Die Schmet. von Europa,' v., 3rd part, p. 31). In 

 Britain we have two very distinct types, that captured near London 

 (and probably in most inland localities) has a much more reticulated 

 appearance than that from the sea coast in the south-east part of England, 

 in which the ground colour is much clearer grey and less marked 

 transversely. The former is the radius of Haworth, whilst the same 

 form but with a transverse central shade between the stigmata is the 

 lignosa of Godart. There is a great deal of sexual difference, the 

 females being much darker than the males, and while some of the 

 females are well-marked, with a clear pale costal patch between the 

 stigmata continued almost to the inner margin as a transverse band, 

 others are entirely black without any paler markings. Haworth 

 describes the male as radius, Stephens describes the female as radiola. 

 Of these Bentley wrote in the * Entomologist,' vol. i. : " Agrotis 

 radiola, radia. The following varieties are taken near London, 

 Stepney, andEpping Forest: Var. 1, <? . Anterior wings ashy, with 

 a large, quadrate, brown patch at the base, and one upon the costa 

 united to the posterior stigma, behind which is a row of black dots, 

 and near the posterior margin a row of whitish spots ; anterior stigmata 



