84 VARIETIES OF NOCTIL2E 



" Abdomen griseurn ; thorax nigricans ; alas anticae nigricanti-f umosae, 

 strigis ordinariis stigmateque elongate nigro-fuscis, nasvo albido, saspe 

 fusco-impleto ; macula media in medio lutea, in basi apiceque fusca. 

 Posticae fuscescentes basi albidse." " (3. Margine postico alarum 

 anticarum laate lutescenti." These are enlarged by Eversmann, who 

 writes : " Paulo major quam Agrotis (Noctua) umbrosa. Alae anticae 

 pro conditione angustiores et longiores, quam in prascedentibus speciebus ; 

 macula media renif ormis in medio lutescens, qua facile cognoscitur hasc 

 species ; striga interna et externa dentatas, vel curvaturis seu 

 semicirculis minutis compositas, duplices ut in praecedentibus et 

 plurimis sequentibus speciebus, distinctae, nigro-f uscas ; spatium 

 submarginale parum distinguitur a colore primario, sed striolis 

 paululum obscuratum est ; margo externus seu spatium terminale 

 pariter non diver sum a colore primario, non obscuratum vel fuscum 

 est, ut in praecedentibus speciebus ; stigma plerumque nigro-circum- 

 scriptum, interdum autam totum nigrum est." "In varietate /3 totus 

 margo alarum anticarum posticus sat late lutescit, quo signatures 

 evanescent. Hanc varietatem, quaa asquo jure proforma genuina haberi 

 potest, eel. Tauscher descripsit et depinxit '' (' Fauna Volgo-Uralensis,' 

 p. 193). Only one specimen has been taken in England, recorded in 

 Stainton's ' Manual,' vol. i., and Newman's ' British Moths,' p. 325, as 

 " captured in Derbyshire." 



In the ' Entomologist/ vol. xx., pp. 313-314, Mr. N. F. Dobree 

 writes : " As the information in all such works as I have read, 

 whether English or Continental, regarding this rare insect, is very 

 meagre, and the descriptions of it hardly any better, all apparently 

 copied from one another, anything new regarding it will be of interest. 

 I have for years sought for it fruitlessly in St. Petersburg, Finland, and 

 Stockholm, where it is not known to occur, so far as I could learn, and 

 also in the many Continental price-lists that are sent me annually. I 

 have also written for it to dealers in Montreal and Quebec without 

 success, and I failed to find it in the entomological collection sent over 

 for the late Colonial Exhibition in London by the Montreal Society. 

 My friend, the late Mr. George Norman, who, in 1874 and 1875, spent 

 two seasons entomologising in Canada, on the borders of the lakes near 

 Niagara, found it there of excessive rarity. He got but a single one 

 himself at rest on palings in the month of August, and, though the 

 object of his particular research, he could only acquire two more from 

 resident collectors he met. All these specimens are males, and agree 

 well with the drawings in Newman and Herrich-Schaffer. I have 

 now quite lately received it from Western Siberia, and seem at last to 

 have traced it to its home. My correspondent, who I may say in 

 parenthesis, is the curator of a German museum, and an experienced 

 entomologist, after a five years' sojourn in the neighbourhood of 

 Wladiwostock on the Amoor Eiver, chiefly made for entomological 

 purposes, writes to me < I am not surprised that you are so much 

 struck with the difference between the male and female, but I can 

 fully answer you on that point. The specimens with the broad 

 yellow-ochreish shading on the inner margin of the upper wing are 

 males, the females never have it, at least not in Siberia. I have 

 bred it myself in Nicolajefsk on the Amoor, and was also at first 

 surprised to get two such different images from the same larvae. In 

 1884, 1 found about 200 of the larvae around Nicolajefsk, but 



