IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 171 



conspicua " (< Fauna Suecicas,' p. 320). From this it would appear very 

 doubtful whether we get the type in Britain, for entirely whitish (hoary) 

 forms with fuscous transverse lines and black marginal streaks cannot 

 be at all frequent with us, as I have never seen one. It would appear, 

 therefore, that the Linnagan type is an extreme northern form, fore- 

 shadowed by the strong pale base in some of our Scotch specimens, 

 the pale colour extending over the whole wing in still more northern 

 localities. The pale-based form is much more common in Scotland 

 than England, where the species has usually a much brighter reddish 

 ground colour, and the basal area is much less often pale grey. The 

 following appear to be the principal forms : 



1. Whitish, with dark transverse lines =- litura, Linn. 



2. Purplish fuscous, with pale base = var. borealis, Sp.-Schn. 



3. Purplish fuscous, without pale base = var. ornatrix, Hb. 



4. Bright red, with pale base = var. rufa-pallida. 



5. Bright red, without pale base = var. rufa. 



a. var. borealis, Sp.-Schn. Sparre Schneider first described the 

 purplish fuscous form with a pale base, under this name (' Nedenaas 

 Amts Lep.,' p. 69). The diagnosis in the ' Entomologisk Tidskrift,' 

 1885, p. 74, is as follows : " Framvingarne i inre halften blagra." 



p. var. ornatrix, Hb-Gey. I described Geyer's figure as follows : 

 " The anterior wings are of a purplish-grey coloration with no dis- 

 tinctly paler base ; the abbreviated and complete basal streaks are 

 double and black ; the usual dark costal streaks are present ; the orbi- 

 cular and reniform are dark and both are outlined with paler ; a large, 

 triangular, dark costal blotch is situated between the stigmata, with a 

 short black line (part of central shade) from the base of the reniform 

 to the inner margin ; the elbowed and subterminal lines are pale. 

 Hind wings dark grey, with paler base and a distinct lunule " 

 (' Sammlung europaischer Schmet.' fig. 813). 



y. var. rufa, inihi. Instead of the dark purplish coloration of the 

 type, this variety has the anterior wings of a bright reddish-brown, 

 the ordinary transverse lines and stigmata being generally well 

 developed. Whilst, in Scotland, almost all the specimens captured are 

 referable to the type or var. ornatrix, those from the South of England 

 are principally this variety or var. rufa-pallida. 



8. var. rufa-pallida, mihi. This bears the same relation to var. 

 rufa that var. borealis does to var. ornatrix, having the basal, paler than 

 the outer area. But whilst var. borealis is more common than var. 

 ornatrix, this form appears to be rarer than var. rufa. 



Besides the above, the following two varieties are mentioned by 

 Continental authors : 



a. var. polluta, Esp. Of this variety Guenee writes : " In spite 

 of the bad figure of Esper, his polluta appears to me to be the same as 

 the ornatrix of modern authors. M. Freyer who gave it as distinct, 



goes on to say : " It is larger, all the lines are strongly 

 developed and the black spots are large and well-marked, even the 

 costal triangle " (' Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 369). Esper himself con- 

 sidered polluta a var. of litura. Staudinger keeps it distinct from var. 

 ornatrix, describing polluta as " larger and darker " and ornatrix as 



