IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. Ill 



minated by three deep scalloped lines indicating the second striga ; the 

 middle of the wing is darker and bears the three stigmata, the two 

 ordinary ones being pale with the centres rather darker and the edges 

 black, and the supplemental one formed of a brownish oblique patch 

 edged with a blackish line. Beyond the stigma is a much-curved row 

 of small blackish arched lines succeeded by a subapical brownish shade, 

 in which the fourth striga undulates, the middle of which is not so 

 strongly angulated as usual, but is marked with several arrow-headed 

 dark marks ; the hind wings are marked with a slightly paler wave 

 beyond the middle. Rare; found near London, Brighton, and in 

 Norfolk. It occurs in the winged state at the end of June. It was 

 accidently omitted in Mr. Doubleday's list of NOCTUID^J published in 

 the ' Entomologist ' for October 1842 " (< British Moths,' p. 1G5). My 

 specimens of this variety have come from Brighton, Reading and the 

 Suffolk coast. The sub-var. virgata-ochracea is figured in Newman's 

 < British Moths,' p. 385, fig. 3. It has the basal and outer areas pale 

 ochreous, the space between the complete basal and elbowed lines dark 

 ochreous, forming a transverse band. The orbicular and reniform 

 stigmata are pale. I have only one specimen which came from 

 Shoreham (Sussex). 



7. var. lepida, Esp. This is a parallel variety to the type, but, 

 instead of the dark ochreous ground being mottled with still darker 

 brown, this has a pale ochreous ground colour, mottled with darker 

 ochreous. Esper's figure may be described as : " Anterior wings pale 

 ochreous with very distinct markings ; a blackish claviform, whitish 

 orbicular and reniform, and whitish between the broken black parts of 

 the subterminal ; several small black transverse streaks on the costa 

 and inner margin " (' Die Schmet. in Abbildungen,' pi. 152, fig. 2). 

 My specimens have come from Grantham and the Essex and Kent 

 coasts. 



8. var. brunnea, mihi. This variety, like var. pallida and ochracea, 

 has almost obsolete markings. The ground colour of the anterior 

 wings dark ochreous, sometimes almost or quite brown. My specimens 

 of this form have come from Ripon and Darlington. Sub-var. virgata- 

 brunnea is another rare form. I have one specimen from Ripon and a 

 second from Hartlepool. It is brown in colour like var. brunnea, but 

 the central area is much darker. It forms therefore a parallel form to 

 virgata-ochracea, and is figured in Newman's ' British Moths,' p. 385, 

 fig. 5. 



Dianthcccia, Bdv., capsopliila, Dup. (sub-species?). 

 The type of capsopliila is thus described by Godart and Duponchel : 

 " This species is very near to carpopliaga, of which we should not be 

 astonished if it were only a local variety. It differs from it really 

 only by its darker tint and by the clear transverse lines of the fore 

 wings, which are very much more white than yellow. Otherwise 

 there is absolutely the same design in the two species. The species 

 (or variety, whichever it may be), has been found in Valais by M. 

 Anderegg " (' Histoire Naturelle ' &c., p. 100). The figure of capsopliila 

 to which this description refers, appears to me rather a variety of the 

 species as we know it, than our typical British capxopMa, to which it 

 bears a close resemblance, although failing almost as much as many forms 



