IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 107 



var. mista, which is the form of the species usually obtained in the 

 Perth district. 



/3. var. mista, Frr. The type of this variety may be thus 

 described : " Anterior wings of a bright red, with a complete basal 

 line ; the basal area (between this line and the base) slaty-grey ; the 

 costa also slaty-grey to the elbowed line, which, with the median and 

 basal lines is also slaty ; a transverse black dash between the stigmata 

 which are surrounded with darker red than the ground colour ; a series 

 of black shades on nervures between the elbowed and subterminal 

 lines. Hind wings dark grey, base paler, lunule distinct " (' Neuere 

 Beitrage ' &c., pi. 441, fig. 3). The " black dash between the stigmata " 

 is absent, and the stigmata are surrounded with pale ochreous and 

 not with " darker red than the ground colour " in the Perthshire 

 form. Otherwise our specimens from that locality agree exactly with 

 mista, and must be included under that varietal name. The most 

 peculiar character in the Perth specimens (so far as my series is con- 

 cerned) is that the males are uniformly larger than the females. This 

 variety would appear to be the sobrina of Duponchel, pi. 69, fig. SA. His 

 description corresponding with this fig. is : " The superior wings 

 above are reddish-brown with their bases powdered with bluish-grey, 

 traversed by two wavy, brown undulated lines, between which are the 

 ordinary stigmata outlined in clear reddish. The reniform small and 

 its lower part filled in with a large black spot. Between the second 

 line and the terminal edge, one notices at once a wavy row of small 

 black points, followed immediately by a clear reddish line, equally 

 wavy, near the hind margin. Inferior wings shiny greyish-ochreous 

 with reddish fringe and dark lunule " (' Histoire naturelle ' &c., Supp. 

 iv., p. 224). 



y. var. suffusa, mihi. This variety is the dullest and least strongly 

 marked of all the forms of sobrina. My specimens all came from 

 Rannoch, and have the anterior wings of a dull dark grey colour with 

 the slightest reddish tint. In fact, one specimen is entirely without 

 such a tint, whilst in another there is a very slight tinge of ochreous. 

 The basal area is only slightly powdered with grey, the nervures being 

 still less so. The orbicular varies in size, shape and character, the 

 transverse lines are indistinct, the basal lines are darker, the lower part 

 of the reniform darker, the nervures slightly dusted with pale grey at 

 their bases ; altogether it is a most unicolorous form. The males and 

 female in my series of this form are of uniform size and not dimorphic 

 as is apparently the case in the Perth form. Duponchel's pi. 69, fig. 

 SB is like the Eannoch specimens, dull brownish-grey, not ashy-white 

 as Guende describes gruneri. 



Noctua, Linn., glareosa, Esp. 



This species has a wide variation in ground colour, which extends 

 from a pure whitish-grey to black, the characteristic short, black 

 transverse marks, however, being very constant in all its forms of 

 variation, and standing out conspicuously even in the darkest specimens. 

 These darkest specimens are, I believe, almost peculiar to the Shetland 

 Isles, and are excessively rare elsewhere, although there is a record by 

 Mr. Wylie in the ( Entomologist's Record ' &c., vol. i., p. 11, of three 

 black specimens being captured in 1887, near Perth. There is also a 

 beautiful variety tinged with a delicate rosy colour, as was mentioned 

 in vol. i., p. 11, of this work, as being of frequent occurrence in those 



