36 VARIETIES OF 



markings ; but fig. 15, PL 39, called Miselia compta, in Westwoocl and 

 Humphrey's ' British Moths,' is certainly a variety of conspersa with 

 rather more white upon it than var. albimacuJoidce, but the description 

 of compta on page 187 of the same work is certainly a description of 

 compta where it is said " the wings being regularly fasciated with 

 white," but it applies to conspersa where it is said " it feeds on 

 Lychnis dioica, as compta feeds on Dianthns " (' Young Nat.,' vol. viii., 

 p. 178). I do not know whether Mr. Gregson's variety here referred 

 to as var. albimaculoidce is identical with my var. suffusa, which is 

 very devoid of white markings, but the ground-colour of the latter is 

 black or blackish-grey not brown. I quite agree with Mr. Gregson 

 that Humphrey and Westwood's compta is conspersa and I believe the 

 statement "regularly fasciated with white" to be simply a loose 

 description of the figure, although such a description applies of course, 

 strictly, to true compta. Of this species, Mr. Robson writes : " The 

 stigmata white ; the reniform clouded with darker ; the inner margin 

 mottled with white, and a blotch of the same colour near the tip ; 

 the remainder of the wing clouded and marbled with darker marks 

 of at least two shades, which vary from brown, in examples from the 

 South of England, to black in those from the North. Specimens 

 recently brought from the Shetland Isles are nearly all black, only 

 being a little lighter in shade, where those from other localities are 

 white. Conspersa is perhaps the scarcest of the four generally- 

 distributed species, and it is rarely very abundant even where it does 

 occur. In Ireland it has been very seldom taken. It has a habit, not 

 usual with others of the genus, of resting on palings, and I have been 

 told of a fence near Croydon some two miles long, on which the 

 collector is likely to meet with thirty or forty specimens every day, 

 while the species is on the wing. On my collecting-ground I have 

 only taken seven specimens in nearly thirty years, and one of these 

 was at rest on some palings. For purposes of comparison, I may say 

 that during the same period I must have taken at least a couple of 

 thousand carpophaga on the wing, and I never saw but one on the 

 palings " (' Young Naturalist,' vol. iv., p. 184). 



The following is an attempt to classify the different varieties of 

 this species : 

 1. Black, much mottled with white, central white fascia unbroken 



= var. fasciata. 

 2. Black, much mottled with white, central white fascia broken 



= conspersa, Esp. = nana, Rott. 



3. Black or blackish-grey, very little white mottling = var. siiffma. 

 4. Black, tinted with ochreous, white restricted to reniform area 



= var. intermedia. 



5. Blackish, much mottled with ochreous = var. ochrea, Gregs. 

 6. Dull unicolorous ochreous-black = var. obliterce, Robson. 



I am entirely unable to distinguish between the var. ochrea and 

 obseurce of Gregson, in both of which the usually white parts of the 

 wing appear to be ochreous (ride ( Entomologist's Record,' vol. ii., p. 306). 

 It is very doubtful whether Hufnagel's description * of nana does not 



* This is one of the few original descriptions I have been unable to test 

 personally. I am indebted to Mr. Kirby of the British Museum for this. 



