128 VARIETIES OF 



exhibited, but neither is there any striking general development in 

 this direction. 



Panolis, Hb. (Trachea, Och.), piniperda, Panz. 



This species varies considerably in ground colour, which extends 

 from a pale whitish-grey to a brilliant red. Some of the grey forms 

 are tinged with green, a not uncommon form of variation in other 

 species, Smerinthus tilice and Ettopia fasciaria being well-known 

 examples. The Rev. Bernard Smith sent me a specimen of piniperda 

 which had come from Perth, of a deep mahogany-brown ground colour, 

 with the central band darker, the stigmata joined at their bases by a 

 fine white line, the orbicular being white and the reniform ochreous 

 but outlined in white. I have seen no other like it. The species is 

 known in Scandinavia as griseo-variegata, Goze, an earlier name, but 

 piniperda is so well-known that it seems a pity to replace it. Guenee 

 gives two forms, the red and the grey, but there is a great difference 

 in the intensity of the red, the extreme forms being very brightly 

 coloured, and agreeing with the brilliantly tinted flammea of Hiibner. 

 There is considerable variation in the colour of the stigmata, which 

 are sometimes white, sometimes ochreous,sometimes reddish surrounded 

 by ochreous. The pale central nervure reminds one of certain Agrotidce, 

 but the most striking character is the variation in the shape of the 

 reniform, which sometimes assumes strange forms, and varies also in 

 position. Guenee is right in considering as the type the ordinary red 

 and grey form. He writes of it : *' Superior wings of a bright brick- 

 red colour, with the nervures and some of the scales of a greyish- 

 white, with olive or ochreous clouds, chiefly on the! median and termi- 

 nal spaces; a narrow band of a dirty lilac colour, slightly shiny, 

 follows the elbowed line, which is strongly toothed and closely 

 approaches the complete basal line at the inner margin, the discoidals 

 are clearly marked, white, shaded with olive interiorly ; the reniform 

 very large, oblique and drawn out, the orbicular small and round. 

 The inferior wings of a blackish colour, reddish in the basal area, with 

 a lunule and transverse line darker" (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 340). 

 The spreta of Fabricius is also the type. His diagnosis is : " Bonibyx 

 alis deflexis carneo luteoque variis : stigmatibus albis " (' Mantissa,' p. 

 124). He then quotes Panzer's original type description as follows : 

 " Phalcena piniperda spirilinguis cristata, alis deflexis : superioribus 

 rubicundo luteo variis, macula transversali albidiori dolabriformi ; 

 inferioribus griseis pallidius fimbriatis " (Panzer, 'Monograph,' 61, 

 Plate 1., figs. 1-12). Of the imago of this species Dr. Chapman 

 writes : " Trachea piniperda is much nearer to Tceniocampa than 

 is Pachnobia, the eggs are laid in groups, the moth sits with deflexed 

 wings. Indeed it seems to be a true Tceniocampa, somewhat modified 

 in colouring to suit its especial food ; the striping of the larva being 

 like that of gothica or instabilis, and the markings of the moth being 

 those of a Tceniocampa, but the colouring is such as to harmonise with 

 the rich tints of the bark of the smaller branches of Scotch fir and the 

 shadows of the pine needles " (' Entomologist's Record ' &c. vol. ii., 

 p. 12). 



a. var. flammea, Hb. This is the extreme red form of piniperda, 

 and Hiibner's figure is very brightly coloured. " The anterior wings 

 have the extreme base yellow, followed by an abbreviated, transverse, 

 black basal line, then a bright red patch followed by another basal 



