132 VARIETIES OF NOCTtLZE 



paischer Schmet.,' fig. 519). Of mista, Guenee writes : " Of a deep 

 brick-red, with the costa and the transverse lines tinted with grey, 

 and the terminal space darker. Inferior wings darker on the outer 

 margin, with a median line sometimes visible " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., 

 p. 350). My specimens of this variety have come principally from 

 Darlington and Hereford. It is the most common form in the former 

 locality, but, in the latter, it appears to be the most extreme form, and 

 the nearest approach to the more purple-grey forms peculiar to North 

 Britain. 



8. var. mucida, Esp. Esper's diagnosis of this variety is as 

 follows : " Alis rufis violascenti micantibus, atomis nigris, margine 

 anteriori, vittaque dentata albido irroratis " (' Die Schmet. in Abbil- 

 dungen ' &c., p. 482) ; whilst the figure to which this description 

 refers, may be described as follows : *' Anterior wings dull purplish 

 with dark costal streaks, the costa itself slaty, with a slaty transverse 

 shade inside the subterminal line. Hind wings dark grey with pale 

 base " (Plate 148, fig. 4). This is almost identical with the ordinary 

 North British form I have from Morpeth, Darlington and Pitcaple. 



e. var. pilicornis, Brahm. -This is the most extreme grey form of 

 rubricosa, with the red entirely covered with grey, and the transverse 

 lines marked distinctly in brownish. Brahm's description is : " The 

 fore wings small, slightly overlapping ; of an ashy-grey colour with 

 a reddish tinge and glossy ; a short, brownish, abbreviated transverse 

 line, which loses itself in the ground colour ; this is followed by a 

 complete, brownish, wavy line, made up of lunar markings. The 

 elbowed line still more waved, the points of the lunar marks turned 

 outwards ; the subterminal is pale and zigzag, but indistinct. Close 

 to the fringe is a row of small black dots. Both stigmata are ashy- 

 grey with a red-brown border ; the transverse lines are tolerably 

 pale, lined with darker on the outer margin, and make distinct short 

 costal streaks at their origin ; the outer border of the discoidals is also 

 very distinct, a shade passing through the reniform from the costa to 

 the inner margin." My examples of this extreme purplish-grey form 

 have come from Morpeth, Pitcaple and Darlington. In Britain it 

 appears to be a purely northern form. 



Tceniocampa, Gn. 



This is, without doubt, one of the most interesting of all our 

 genera of NOCTU^B. The species offer widely different superficial 

 characters, and yet the resemblances are sufficient to make us recognise 

 the close alliance that their larvas prove them to have. Of the species 

 comprised in Tceniocampa, instabilis and opima are very closely allied 

 to one another, whilst populeti, superficially allied to these, appears to 

 be more closely allied structurally to stabilis, and munda is, perhaps, 

 next to opima, more closely allied to instabilis than any other ; gracilis, 

 in its typical form, appears to be fairly distinct, but its dark varieties 

 run insensibly into those of instabilis, to which its shape also allies it. 

 Gothica, through its var. yothicina, shows its relationship to stabilis, but 

 the typical specimens have quite a close superficial resemblance to 

 certain members of the genus Noctua, especially N. c-nigrum. Its 

 larva &c., however, are Tceniocampa. Mimosa appears to be the most 

 specialised, and, at the same time, the most aberrant member of the 

 genus, and its closest affinities are with stabilis and cruda, although 



