120 VARIETIES OF NOCTTLK 



B. Bright reddish-ochreous (inclining to red-brown). 

 1. Without quadrate spots, but with pale base (banded form) = var. 



rufo-virgata. 



2. Without quadrate spots (mottled form) = var. conflua, H.-S. 

 3. With quadrate spots = var. mendica, Fab. 



C. Pale yellow or whitish-ochreous. 



1. Without quadrate spots, but with pale base == var. ochrea-virgata. 

 2. Without quadrate spots (mottled form) = var. ignicola, H.-S. 

 3. With quadrate spots = var. primula, Esp. 



A. Ground colour deep purplish- red. 



a. var. congener, Hb. This is the nearest approach to the type, but 

 instead of having a pale slaty-coloured base, the purplish or red-brown 

 colour is spread over the whole wing (basal area included), whilst the 

 pale stigmata &c., give it a mottled appearance. Of Hiibner's figure 

 (' Sammlung europ. Schmet.,' fig. 617), I wrote : " This is a very red 

 form, with almost unicolorous stigmata." Guenee writes : " This is of a 

 deeper and more intense red, above all in the median area, with the 

 transverse lines well marked " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 331). 



P. var. Kubrufa, Haw. The ground colour deep purplish-red or red- 

 brown, with the basal area slightly slaty or glaucous as in the type, to the 

 central transverse shade, which is darker and generally well developed ; 

 the stigmata, well developed, pale greyish-ochreous, with a dark quad- 

 rate spot between the stigmata and one beyond the orbicular ; the area 

 between the elbowed and subterminal lines, which are ochreous in 

 tint, being much darker ; a small ochreous cloud sometimes round the 

 reniform. One of my specimens of this form from Warrington, has 

 the two quadrate spots joined by a black line under the orbicular, as is 

 frequently the case in the allied species ditrapezium, c-nigrum &c., whilst 

 another has the complete transverse line, black, and joining the inner 

 quadrate spot, and also the elbowed line edged internally with darker, 

 joining the outside of the reniform, giving it a peculiar appearance. 

 My specimens of this variety have come from Aberdeen, Pitcaple, 

 Perth and Warrington. This is the subrufa of Haworth, whose 

 diagnosis is as follows : " Noctua alis rufis vel rufo-purpureis, strigis 

 ordinariis stigmatibusque pallidioribus." " Prascedenti (f estiva) valde 

 affinis, at alas in mare magis rufa3, characteribus omnibus obscurioribus, 

 stigma reniforme dorso, macula oblongae fuscaa adnatum. Faamina 

 purpurascit, stigmate postico superne flavicante. Cetera ut in N. 

 f estiva " (' Lepidoptera Britannica,' p. 227). Of this variety Guenee 

 writes : " With no black marks before and beyond the ordinary 

 stigmata" ('Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 331); whilst Humphrey and 

 Westwood write: " The var. subrufa of Haworth, differs in having 

 the fore wings of the male redder-coloured, with the markings less 

 conspicuous " ('British Moths/ p. 131). 



B. Ground colour, bright reddish-ochreous. 



a. var. conflua, H.-S. Anterior wings deep reddish-ochreous, 

 mottled with darker red markings ; an incomplete, followed by a com- 

 plete basal line with a tiny black dot often placed between them on 

 the median nervure, dark reddish quadrate spot hardly traceable between 



