114 VARIETIES OF NOCTU-S2 



the Wharncliffe specimens sent me some years ago by the York 

 collectors. Hiibner's fig. 416 is a $ , and agrees more with the Scotch 

 form, but is still marked with ochreous stigmata. " The anterior wings 

 are purplish-red in colour, with the reniform stigma yellow, the 

 orbicular the same shade as the ground colour, but outlined in paler." 

 Guene'e writes of dahlii: " This varies no less than / estiva. I am assured 

 that the candelisequa of Stephens is only the female of this species, but 

 how can we apply his description, above all the words * alis griseis 

 glauco-pruinosis ? "' (' Noctuelles,' v., p. 330). Glaucous forms of dahlii 

 are much rarer than in J 'estiva, laia and sobrina, but are occasionally 

 met with. Of the other two forms, the ochreous marbled, chestnut 

 forms are more often (but not exclusively) in England, males, the red, 

 females ; in Scotland and Ireland, both sexes are usually reddish or 

 purplish-brown. My specimens of the type have come from Wharn- 

 cliffe, Sherwood Forest and Aberdeen. This mottled type form is the 

 erythrocephala of Haworth. His diagnosis is : " Noctua alis griseo- 

 ferrugineis macula inter stigmata fasciaque postica castaneis." " Prsece- 

 dentibus duabus (subrvfa and festiva) certe affinis. Differt statura 

 minore, macula inter stigmata rufo-castanea vix quadrata, sed magis 

 rotunda, denique fascia fuseo-castanea parum undulata inter stigmata 

 et marginem posticum. Alee posticse perfuscaB, lunula in medio, nigra. 

 Caetera ut in praBcedentibus " (' Lepidoptera Britannica,' p. 227). 



a. var. rufa, mihi. Taking the chestnut coloured, more marbled 

 form of dahlii as the type, I would call the redder form var. rufa. 

 The anterior wings are of a deep reddish-brown, frequently tinged 

 with purple, with the central area not distinctly mottled, but with 

 well-marked stigmata. My specimens have come chiefly from Sligo 

 and Aberdeen, but I have specimens from Howth and other localities. 

 When this form is tinged with glaucous, it becomes the candelisequa of 

 Stephens. 



/3. var. candelisequa, St. Of candelisequa, St., Humphrey and 

 Westwood write : " The fore wings are of a red-brown colour irrorated 

 with glaucous, the dusky striga? occasionally very indistinct ; the first, 

 abbreviated, behind (at base), succeeded by a dot, a second, undulated, 

 before the anterior stigma, another, dentated beyond the outer stigma, 

 succeeded by a paler one slightly undulated : the stigmata are pale 

 luteous-brown, edged with a dusky line, and greyish in the middle ; 

 there is also a dusky dot behind the anterior stigma in the place of 

 the supplemental one, and there is a row of marginal black spots. The 

 hind wings are luteous-brown, with the margin darker. The cilia are 

 pale reddish. The antennas are exceedingly slender, with the ciliations 

 scarcely perceptible. The abdomen is pale luteous-brown " (' British 

 Moths,' p. 128). It is very rarely one gets a glaucous-tinged specimen, 

 although I have seen such, and, in some of the allied species, sobrina, 

 baia, f estiva &c., glaucous forms are not at all uncommon. Mr. Stephens' 

 type came from Darenth Wood. 



y. Guenee describes a var. A from America, as follows : " Paler, 

 with the designs partly obliterated, the orbicular proportionally large, 

 the reniform outlined but not filled in with yellow." " State of New 

 York " (< Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 332). Perhaps such varieties may be 

 in some of our British collections. 



Noctua festiva and N. conflua. 

 We now come to the mobt variable and interesting of all the species in 



