IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 125 



ous with the rest of the wing, they sometimes stand out conspicuously 

 pale, even in the darkest specimens. Newman writes : " The colour 

 is grey-brown, tinged either with ochreous-brown, brickdust-red or 

 umber-brown ; the discoidal spots are generally very distinct and 

 decidedly paler, being of an ochreous-grey tint ; in some, the median 

 area is exactly concolorous with the general area of the wing. The 

 hind wings are pale grey-brown, with a dark brown hind-marginal 

 band ; the fringe is paler " (' British Moths,' p. 354) ; whilst Guene'e 

 says : " It varies from the deepest brick-red, to the palest, and 

 in another direction to the most intense black-brown, but all the 

 varieties are linked together, and are not able to be separated 

 into races " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 337). Herr Hoffmann writes : 

 "Through the kindness of Dr. Staudinger, I have received this 

 species from different localities, among them I have a pair, light 

 grey with yellow shading, from Sicily. Although I have a large num- 

 ber of varieties in my collection, I do not find any approaching the 

 Shetland form, the fore wings of which are largely scaled and show a 

 deep black-brown with a reddish tint, the reniform and orbicular being 

 ochreous. Mr. McArthur writes, that he caught still darker ones" 

 (' Stettiner ent. Zeitung,' 1884, p. 360). It would be impossible to 

 classify all the varieties of this species, but most of them may be in- 

 cluded in one of the following six groups : 



1. Pale greyish = var. cohcesa, H.-S. 



2. Dark greyish-fuscous = xantographa, Fab. 



3. Pale reddish-grey or pale reddish = var. rvfescens. 



4. Bright red = var. rufa. 



5. Dark reddish-black = var. obscura. 



6. Blackish-grey = var. ni.gr a. 



The variation in the development of the stigmata and the distinctness 

 of the central shade and trans verse lines might be multiplied indefinitely. 

 In the three paler forms, the stigmata are generally distinct though 

 variable in colour, but in the three darker forms, they are frequently 

 quite absorbed in the ground colour, and the fore wings become, in the 

 darkest Scotch specimens, unicolorous without any trace whatever of 

 paler or darker lines and markings. The Fabrician description of the 

 type is as follows : " Xantographa. N. cristata alis deflexis testaceis ; 

 maculis ordinariis flavis." " Statura omnino prsecedentis (oleracea) 

 at paullo minor. Caput, thorax, alee anticse obscure testacese maculis 

 ordinariis flavescentibus, postice striga punctorum nigrorum. Posticse 

 uti et abdomen cinereae " (' Mantissa,' p. 170). There is a considerable 

 amount of variation in the depth of colour in the hind wings, those 

 of the males being usually (though not always) paler than those of the 

 females. The Shetland forms, previously referred to by Herr Hoffmann, 

 are identical with those from Scotland, and I have seen no dark forms 

 from the former localities, that I have not received from the Aberdeen- 

 shire collectors. Fabricius spells the name xantographa, although 

 xanthographa is the more correct method of spelling. 



a. var. cohcesa, H.-S. Herrich-Schaffer's description of this pale 

 form of xantographa is as follows : " Ochracea-grisea, linea undulata 

 pallidiore, in fsemina basin versus maculis sagittatis nigris." " Like 

 xanthcgrapha but smaller and plumper. Colour of a clear yellow -grey. 

 Markings almost exactly as in xanthographa ; stigmata pale and clearly 

 defined " (' Systematische Bearbeitung ' &c., p. 209). This pale greyish 



