IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 137 



collectors, the first thing that strikes me is the extreme colour variation, 

 extending from pale- whitish and slaty-grey to the most intense black, 

 and passing through every possible shade of red and brown. With 

 regard to the markings, the central shade is the striking character in 

 the paler forms, but it becomes practically obsolete in the more 

 unicolorous forms. The most striking character to me appears, however, 

 to be the peculiar appearance presented by the specimens according as 

 they have a gloss or not ; the dull, and often more mottled appearance 

 of the latter without a gloss, looking strikingly different to the smooth 

 silky appearance of the former, even when the tint is identical. Of 

 peculiar specimens which it is almost impossible to classify, I have a 

 large number picked from hundreds by different friends. Dull greyish- 

 black specimens ; a blackish specimen mottled with reddish-brown, 

 reddish-grey with whitish hind wings and no gloss, bright shiny red 

 (from Warrington), as bright as the brightest red specimen of Pachnobia 

 rubricosa, a pale grey with a central coppery tinge, from Cambridge, 

 a specimen almost indistinguishable in shape and general appearance 

 from T.populeti, specimens with united stigmata, and so on, are among 

 the most noteworthy. The stigmata vary endlessly, but the orbicular 

 appears to be always present ; the reniforra is variable in size, sometimes 

 imicolorous, at others outlined in pale ; sometimes 8-shaped with the 

 upper and lower parts filled in with dark, at others with only the lower 

 part dark ; the subterminal generally almost unicolorous or only slightly 

 paler than the ground colour, but varying to almost white ; the central 

 shade (generally including the reniform) very strongly developed in 

 some pale specimens. Pale hind wings are very rare in this species, 

 but I have two specimens in which they are almost white, and the 

 colour of the hind wings may be traced through from this pale colour 

 to deep blackish-grey. Hufnagel really gives no description of this 

 variable species. He simply says " sometimes yellowish-red, sometimes 

 ashy-grey, and sometimes red-brown with dark reniform enclosed in 

 white." He also adds: "The specimens of this species vary in detail 

 very much, and hence care should be taken not to treat them as different 

 species. The facies are the same in the main, and this must be kept 

 in mind " (< Berlinisches Magazin,' III., pp. 298 and 424). There is, 

 of course, no description here by which any species can possibly be 

 recognised, and I have therefore taken the description of Fabricius as 

 that of the type. It is as follows : " Noctua Isevis alis deflexis griseis: 

 fascia media ferruginea." " Alas antics griseas, subundatse fascia media, 

 undata, ferruginea. Posticas supra f uscas, subtus cinereas puncto centrali, 

 fusco." He also adds : " Color alas anticas variat fascia ferruginea 

 tamen semper constans " (< Entomologia Systematical 119). Of this 

 species Guende writes : " The numerous varieties of this species may 

 be divided into two chief races. The first, consisting of those in which 

 ferruginous-red or liver-colour predominates and absorbs the markings ; 

 the other, in which the ground colour is ashy-grey, yellowish, or 

 reddish, in which the markings are very apparent. In the first, we 

 will consider the specimens of a clear ferruginous-red, almost uni- 

 colorous, as the type, which is well represented by the excellent figure 

 of Hiibner " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 350). Humphrey and Westwood 

 write : " This very variable insect measures from 1^ to If inch in 

 the expanse of the fore wings, which vary from a grey to a red-brown 

 colour, variously shaded or marked with deeper tints, especially a 

 darker, irregular, indistinct bar running across the wing between the 



