16 VARIETIES OF NOOTIUE 



a very pale yellow colour, slightly shaded along the base of the costa. 

 There is no orbicular, but a reddish line runs through the normal 

 position of the orbicular from the costa to the inner margin ; the 

 elbowed line also red ; the reniform outlined in dusky ; the central 

 area between the two red transverse lines and below the reniform, 

 shaded with grey ; nervures dusky on outer margin ; fringe reddish. 

 Hind wings white with a pink tinge at the base, and a faint pinkish 

 line parallel to hind margin " (' Sammlung europ. Schmet.,' fig. 421). 

 Our ordinary orange form is the centrago of Haworth, and the extreme 

 red form is the nnicolor of Staudinger. In Britain, the pale yellow 

 type with its ill-developed central band is rare, but appears to occur 

 occasionally in most localities. There is a great deal of variation in 

 the intensity of the purplish-red central band. In the type it is com- 

 paratively absent, but in some specimens of var. centrago it is ex- 

 ceptionally dark. Some of the darkest I have seen were from 

 Gloucestershire. A very strange pale specimen was sent for my 

 inspection by the Rev. Joseph Greene. It had the left fore wing of 

 the pale type, but the right fore wing had no trace of the lower part 

 of the central band, the asymmetry being very noticeable. In the type, 

 and var. nnicolor, the reniform usually stands out rather conspicuously, 

 but in var. centrago it becomes a part of the central band and is then 

 almost unnoticeable. Of the variation in this species Mr. Gregson 

 writes : " During the last two weeks of August, I obtained a nice 

 series near Douglas, in the Isle of Man ; they varied from full rich 

 yellow to rich ochreous-brown " (' Entom.,' vi., p. 518). 



a. var. centrago, Haw. This is the intermediate form and the com- 

 mon one in Britain, where we rarely get either the pale yellow type 

 or the red form nnicolor. Haworth's description is : " Noctua alis 

 aureis medio fascia unangulata margineque postico subfuscis " (' Lepi- 

 doptera Britannica,' p. 236). Our common form (var. centrago), differs 

 not only in the ground colour, but also in the colour of the median 

 band which is of a ferruginous-purple. It is this form which is 

 described by Newman in his * British Moths,' p. 377. Geyer's xeram- 

 pelina fig. 858 of the ' Sammlung europ. Schmet.' is also the same 

 form. I am indebted more especially to the Rev. G. A. Smallwood 

 for my specimens of this and the following variety. Humphrey and 

 West wood give a very full description of our British form. They 

 write : " The fore wings are of a rich orange colour with several 

 minute black lines on the costa ; the characteristic portion of the wing 

 is occupied by a red-brown bar, broadest towards the costa, where it 

 becomes obsolete, terminating in a rounded lobe in the space ordi- 

 narily occurring between the stigmata, which are obsolete. The 

 apical margin is also occupied by a bar of the same colour, which does 

 not extend to the costa. The apex itself is acute, and the apical mar- 

 gin crenated, with the middle rather angulated ; the hind wings are 

 pale whitish, with slight reddish-yellow margins. This very rare 

 species is widely dispersed, having been taken in the North of 

 England, Norfolk, Dorsetshire &c." (' British Moths,' p. 210). There 

 is, as I have previously remarked, considerable difference in 

 the intensity of the central band. Some that I have seen, bred 

 by the Rev. J. Greene from Gloucestershire being exceptionally 

 dark. 



