82 VARIETIES OF NOCTtLB 



Taking, therefore, the dark ashy-grey form with a red costal area 

 as the type, we have to deal with a few other forms. Sometimes the 

 red overspreads all the surface of the anterior wings, at other times, 

 the wings are dark greyish-fuscous, whilst occasionally, the inner area 

 of the wing is ochreous in colour, the costal area being red as in the 

 type. In all these forms there is some variation in the distinctness of the 

 development of the transverse lines, and in the depth of colour between 

 the stigmata, which is sometimes almost black (= var. ravida, Hb.). I 

 have also one unicolorous specimen almost melanic. There appears to 

 be in the arrangement of the colours, a strong superficial resemblance 

 to A. saucia. The ravida of Treitschke represents the type. He 

 describes it as : " Alis anticis fuscis, rubro micantibus, characteribus 

 atris ; posticis albidis, thorace antice brunneo " (' Die Schmet. von. 

 Europa,' vol. v., pt. 1, p. 207). The variation in the stigmata is rather 

 remarkable, more especially the peculiar way in which they are some- 

 times outlined with black. Guenee writes of this species : " The 

 specimens from North America are a little duller, especially the inferior 

 wings, and often more unicolorous, but they scarcely merit to be con- 

 sidered a variety " ('Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 300). A full account of the 

 capture of the type and varieties of this species in Wicken Fen, after 

 a comparative absence in Britain for many years, will be found in the 

 August number of the ' Entomologist's Record,' vol. ii., p. 132. The 

 following is a summary of the varieties we have to deal with : 

 1. Costa red, inner margin grey-brown = obscura, Bork. 

 la. Costa red, inner margin grey-brown, space between reniform and 



orbicular dark = var. ravida, Hb. 

 2. Grey-brown = var. obducta, Esp. 

 3. Grey-brown, space between reniform and orbicular dark = var. 



bigramma, Esp. 



4.. Eeddish-brown = var. rufa. 

 5. Reddish, space between reniform and orbicular dark = var. 



austera, Esp. 

 6. Greyish-black, unicolorous = var. suffusa. 



a. var. ravida, Hb. This is very near to the type, and only differs 

 from it in having the space between the stigmata very dark. It may 

 be described as having the " anterior wings dark grey, with a broad 

 red costa extending from the base to the apex ; the transverse lines 

 distinct ; the subterminal reddish ; the stigmata pale, the space 

 between very dark. Hind wings whitish with dusky nervures " 

 (' Samrnlung europaischer Schmet.,' fig. 126). 



P. var. obducta, Esp. This is the form in which the whole area 

 of the wing is greyish-brown. Esper's description is as follows : 

 " Alis deflexis fuscescentibus, stigmatibus, maculis baseos, strigisque 

 duabus posticis repandis pallidis " (' Die Schmet. in Abbildungen ' &c., 

 p. 452). The figure (PL 142, fig. 4) corresponding with this description 

 has " the anterior wings grey-brown with very pale stigmata and 

 transverse lines, the lower part of the basal area also pale." This 

 totally greyish -brown form, with pale transverse lines, judged from 

 the series I have in my collection, is very much less common than the 

 type, at least in Britain. This is the form described and figured as 

 ravida in Newman's ' British Moths,' p. 335. 



y. var. biyramma, Esp. This is closely allied to obducta, but has the 

 space between the stigmata blackish and also for some distance inside 



