$0 VARIETIES OF 



grey. This ochreous form is not at all uncommon, especially in the 

 more Southern localities in Britain. 



Agrotis, Och., simulans, Hufn. 



Hufnagel's description of the type is a most unsatisfactory one. 

 Tt is as follows : " Phalcena simulans. Der Heuchler. The fore wings 

 of a light greyish-brown colour, with round stigmata and angulated 

 transverse lines." The species is generally known in Britain by the 

 name of pyrophila. It is very uncertain in its appearance, but is widely 

 distributed. Its two best known British localities are Portland and 

 Aberdeen. The brown form obtained at Portland is rather more 

 ochreous than the type, but the Aberdeen varieties are very different, 

 and illustrate the tendency of our Scotch specimens to melanochroism. 

 The most extreme varieties I have seen are : (1). A bright yellow- 

 ochreous form, two specimens of which were captured by Lieut. E. W. 

 Brown, at Portland, in 1890. (2). A black, almost unicolorous form, of 

 which several specimens were taken among other dark blackish forms, 

 by Mr. Eeid, of Pitcaple, in 1889 and 1890. This latter form is sub- 

 ject to a great deal of minor variation, but Mr. Eeid writes : " There 

 is no constancy in the variation of the species here (Pitcaple), but there 

 is a great deal of difference in the depth of the ground colour and the 

 distinctness of the markings. I have one specimen, with the stigmata 

 and the three transverse lines across the anterior wings slightly out- 

 lined in yellow " (in Hit.). The Portland form is Hiibner's pyrophila, 

 which is of " a dark yellowish-brown ground colour, with an abbrevi- 

 ated, followed by a complete double transverse basal line ; reniform 

 outlined in pale, a dark transverse line passes between the stigmata 

 from costa to inner margin, a pale double line, edged internally with 

 blackish, just beyond reniform, another pale line, similarly edged with 

 blackish, parallel to hind margin " (' Sammlung europaischer Schmet.', 

 fig. 43). I have seen very few British specimens of the greyish type, 

 although I believe it is occasionally taken. Yieweg's description of the 

 type is almost identical with that of Hufnagel : " Noctua simulans alis 

 deflexis griseo nitidulis strigis undatis nigricantibus " (' Tabellarisches 

 Verzeichniss,' p. 25, No. 31). Taking the greyish-brown form as the 

 type, we get a distinct ochreous form and a distinct blackish form. 



a. var. pyrophila, Hb. Hiibner's type of this variety has just been 

 described, and agrees almost exactly with the greater number of 

 specimens captured at Portland. These are of a deep ochreous colour, 

 tending to brown in the darker specimens, with the typical transverse 

 lines well developed. The extreme development of the ochreous colour 

 in the Portland specimens results in the production of a distinctly 

 yellowish form, of which I have only seen Lieut. E. W. Brown's two 

 specimens before referred to. 



j3. var. suffusa, mihi. I looked over a large number of picked 

 specimens captured by Mr. W. Eeid at Pitcaple in Aberdeenshire, and 

 there was not a single specimen with the greyish tint of the Continental 

 type (simvlans), nor of the ochreous form of pyrophila obtained at 

 Portland. Occasionally a specimen exhibits a very slight ochreous 

 tint in the ground colour, or the same tint about the transverse lines, 

 but most of the Scotch specimens have the fore wings of a dark 

 blackish colour with fairly distinct transverse lines and stigmata, and 

 presenting a very complete melanic tendency when compared with the 

 type or var. pyrophila. The hind wings are dark grey. 



