IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 95 



is giving place to a dark slate ; the pale line beyond the discoidal spots 

 is very distinct. Fig. D, 2. Here we have the clay colour of the first 

 set, the rusty line of the second, and the rich claret-red of the third 

 series entirely replaced by a dark slate or smoke colour, with hardly 

 any markings at all. 



" Of the unclassified series, Fig. E is the most singular ; it is a very 

 rich blue-slate colour, suffused with red on the costa, all the markings, 

 except the inner lines, being very distinctly picked out. Its great 

 features, however, are to be found in the hind wings : the right wing 

 is like D, 2, with the usual lunule ; but the left is very much paler, 

 and has no lunule spot at all. Fig. F. In this variety, the base of the 

 fore wings is pale, the centre is dark like D, 2, and the tip and costa 

 paler, with the terminal bands very distinctly defined ; the hind 

 wings are a greyish-yellow, the left being lighter than the right ; the 

 band is paler and of a smoky-black. Fig. G. This can hardly be re- 

 ferred to any of the other groups, though it more nearly resembles a 

 redder form of fig. 2 ; the subterminal line is very dark and distinct, 

 while the inner lines, too, are very clearly defined ; the whole fore- 

 wing, indeed, is richly mottled with delicate lines and patches of 

 colour ; the hind wings are somewhat like the last variety, but rather 

 brighter. Of the series of 36, which were reared from this brood of 

 ova, 8 belonged to group A, 14: to group B, 14 to group C, and none to 

 D. Those of group D, and the unclassified series were captured. The 

 intensity of the colouring of group B, and more especially of group 

 C, cannot adequately be shown by any lithograph, as there is a warmth 

 and depth of colouring, giving them a wonderful richness, which is 

 lost in the printing. 



" It is singular that while Triplicena comes should present such re- 

 markable varieties, such, indeed as would warrant their being called 

 new species, could their various gradations be not traced southwards 

 to the locality of the typical comes, yet Triphcena fimbria and T. inter- 

 jecta, bred from the same locality, present no difference in form to the 

 southern types " (' Entomologist,' xxii., pp. 145-14:7). 



Some of the varieties figured by Mr. Clark, ' Entom.', xxii., PL vi., 

 are very peculiar, especially those marked E and F, where the colora- 

 tion of the left hind wing in each, is very striking and unusual, fig. E, 

 not only being different in colour, but without a lunule. More rne- 

 lanic forms than figs. D, 1 and D, 2 are known, some having the hind 

 wings almost as black as the fore wings. 



The type of this species is thus described by Hufnagel : 

 " Fore wings reddish-brown, reniform stigma brown. Hind wings 

 orange colour, with a black margin and black lunule " (' Berlin Magazin,' 

 iii., 304:). There is no trace here of any mention of the characteristic 

 black costal streak of subsequa, and there can be no doubt the description 

 refers to the comes and not the subsequa of Hiibner. Of comes, adsequa 

 and prosequa, Treitschke writes : " I must, however, emphatically 

 affirm that I have the most gradual transitory forms before me, and 

 that I have bred the var. prosequa from the larva of comes as figured 

 by Hiibner " (' Die Schmet.' etc., vol. v., p. 256). The comes of 

 Hiibner is identical with orbona, Hufn., being of the same red-brown 

 colour. So also is the subsequa of Esper, which is thus described : 

 " Noctua spirilinguis Ia3vis alis incumbentibus fuscis, punctis saturati- 

 oribus, stigmatibus ordinariis ; inferioribus luteis, fascia marginal i 



