IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



81 



y. var. latens, St. An extreme melanic form of var. suffusa occurs 

 sparingly in Scotland. It has the anterior wings, crest and thorax 

 unicolorous blackish, with the space between the stigmata and the 

 internal edge of the transverse lines still more intensely black, 

 otherwise the transverse lines would be lost in the ground colour. I 

 have specimens received from Mr. Keid, captured at Pitcaple, and saw 

 other specimens which had been taken in the Hebrides in 1887. I 

 have no doubt that Stephens' type of latens belonged to this species, 

 although Guene'e, and, following him, other Continental authors, have 

 erroneously referred it to lucernea, and at the present time our ordinary 

 dark British lucernea are sent out as latens by Continental dealers. The 

 fact of the presence of a black quadrate spot between the stigmata makes 

 it impossible for the specimen to belong to lucernea, where the stigmata 

 are practically absent, and the quadrate spot is not developed. In 

 Humphrey and Westwood's ' British Moths ' we find : " The following 

 is Mr. Stephens' description of a single specimen supposed to be this 

 species (latens, Hb.), which was taken in the south of Scotland in 

 1827. ' Resembling the last (renigera) in the obscurity of its markings ; 

 head, thorax, and abdomen deep cinereous, anterior wings of a glossy 

 ashy-black, most obsoletely strigated transversely with undulated 

 fuscous lines, visible only in certain positions, the first of which is 

 towards the base and abbreviated, the second anterior to the basal 

 stigma, the last beyond the reniform stigma and considerably bent ; 

 beyond this the wing is darker, and has, towards the hind margin, an 

 obscure pale denticulated striga, the margin itself immaculate ; cilia 

 fuscous ; stigmata very obscure, with a dark quadrate spot between 

 them ; posterior wings obscure cinereous, with the cilia whitish," 

 (Humphrey and Westwood's ' British Moths,' p. 126). There is no 

 doubt, as 1 have pointed out above, that this is not a var. of lucernea, 

 as has been generally supposed. It is not surprising though, that the 

 specimen was not recognised as a var. of simulans, as the black forms 

 of this species have only recently become well-known in Britain, and 

 are still practically unknown on the Continent. 



Agrotis, Och., obscura, Brahm*, Bork. 



The type is thus described by Borkhausen : " The ground colour 

 dark ashy-grey, shot with faint blood-red on the costa. Two arched 

 indistinct transverse lines divide the wing into three nearly equal 

 parts. The first stands before the usual stigmata, is of a blackish- 

 brown colour, and towards the base is bordered with lighter. The 

 second stands on the other side of the stigmata, and consists of a very 

 faint row of black-brown lunar-shaped spots ; it is arch-like in shape, 

 and drawn round the reniform, so that the point where it terminates 

 is just opposite the point on the costa where it commences. Both lines 

 form, at the starting place on the costa, two black points, which there- 

 fore produce four dots, and which are again followed, towards the tip, 

 by some grey ones. The discoidal spots are filled in with black. The 

 last (outer) area of the wing is darker than the others, and within it 

 is to be seen a pale zigzag line, and a somewhat paler marking of the 

 wing nervures which cut through this line. The fringes are alter- 

 nately grey and ash colour " (' Naturgeschichte ' &c., iv., 538). 



* Brahm has only described the earlier stages. I have therefore taken 

 Borkhausen's as the type description. 



