98 VARIETIES OF NOCTTLS 



describes it in these words : ' Brown, palpi reddish, crown of the 

 head pale ; superior wings comparatively short, narrow at the base, 

 and considerably broader at the apex, with the costa reddish ; two pale 

 strigse towards the base, an oblique, oval, and an auriculate stigma, 

 with pale margins and reddish centres towards the middle, beyond 

 which are two pale sinuated striga3, the nervures between them pale, 

 and bearing a row of dots as well as the posterior margin : inferior 

 wings orange, fuscous at the base, the nervures fuscous, a black firn- 

 bria, narrow at the anal angle, curved above and reaching the centre 

 where it forms a crescent, the extreme edge indented and not touching 

 the margin ; abdomen cinereous ; the sides and apex ferruginous ' 

 (Curtis, I. c.). Mr. Curtis, well aware of the similarity of this species 

 to the familiar Tryphcena orbona, thus differentiates them : * That my 

 specimen is distinct from our other species there is no doubt, for the 

 superior wings are formed more like those of Cerigo texta, the stigmata 

 are larger than in T. orbona, the fascia of the inferior wings is broader, 

 and the superior margin beneath is black and not rosy ; in colour, it 

 most resembles the N. consequa of Hiibner ('Noct. tab.,' 23, fig. 105); 

 his N. subsequa is more like N. orbona.' 



" In the ' Insect Hunter's Year-book ' for 1870, I have taken con- 

 siderable pains to differentiate this species from Tryphcena orbona, 

 with which it may very excusably be confounded by those who do not 

 possess a series of both. There are now in the possession of myself 

 and others a great number of chrysalides, and, when they emerge, 

 some of them will infallibly reveal their ancestry if they be really the 

 descendants of Tryphcena orbona. I notice that the very variability of 

 these two species has been urged as a plea for reuniting them as a 

 single species ; but this appears to me quite as cogent a reason for 

 keeping them separate, since I have often observed that two cognate 

 species may, and frequently do, exhibit an infinity of variations." 



This variety is also figured ' Entom.,' xxii., pi. vi., figs, c, 1 and c, 2. 

 A very large number have been distributed in late years by Mr, Keid 

 of Pitcaple and the Aberdeen collectors. 



i. var. nigrescens, mihi. The anterior wings black, the stigmata 

 and transverse lines, which are generally dark in those varieties which 

 have a pale ground colour, being of a very pale shade, making these 

 show up rather conspicuously against the dark ground colour. The 

 hind wings are also frequently much suffused with dark scales. I 

 only know the variety from Scotch specimens. Sub- var. rufo-nigrescens 

 is a form of the above with a distinct red costa, as in the allied var. 

 curtisii. Var. nigrescens is figured < Entom.,' vol. xxii., pi. vi., fig. D, 2, 

 and rufo-nigrescens, fig. D, 1, although the red costa in the latter should 

 be much more distinctly marked. 



K. var. nigra, mihi. This is the most extreme melanic form of 

 the species, in which the posterior and anterior wings are almost uni- 

 formly black. I have seen such forms from Scotland only. 



The following varieties are closely allied to some of the classified 

 forms : 



a. var. connuba, Hb. This is the variety of orbona in which there 

 is no trace of the characteristic lunule on the hind wing. Hiibner's 

 figures may be described as : " Anterior wings pale orange-brown 

 with paler (yellowish) transverse lines and pale nervures ; the orbi- 

 cular and reniform outlined in yellow. The posterior wings as in 

 orbona, but without the lunule " (' Sammlung europaischer Schmet.,' 



