IN TTTE BRTTTSTT ISLANDS. 



others, the dark type is common, whilst in others, specimens with a 

 greenish tint and richly speckled with orange are common. Guenee 

 writes of it : "This species is as common, but less distributed than 

 flurii-incta. It varies infinitely, and I have had a large number of 

 specimens sent me for determination, which have puzzled their 

 possessors. However, the constant well-marked and uniform design, 

 and the inferior wings, always white in the males, without a median 

 line, with a well-marked lunule and a strongly accentuated series of 

 terminal lunules, whilst those of the female are grey almost black, 

 together with the short abdomen of the latter sex, ought to prevent all 

 confusion " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 37). Mr. Sydney Webb, who 

 now has Mr. Gregson's series of this insect, writes : " This may (in 

 Britain) be called an "invariable" species, excepting that there is a 

 central dark cloud, that sometimes assumes almost the character of a 

 fascia. Gregson calls this form var. statices." Mr. Webb adds : "I 

 also send you a prettily marked with very pale ground colour, in 

 which the transverse markings are rather crowded together in the 

 middle of the wing, also another specimen in which the yellow mark- 

 ings are largely in excess, making a great contrast with the dark 

 central fascia " (in. litt. 27, 2, '92). The announcement of this species 

 as British, was made by Mr. Doubleday as follows : " A day or two 

 since, my friend, Mr. Greening of Warrington, sent me a NOCTUA to 

 name which he bred from a larva found by himself in the Isle of Man. 

 It is Folia nigrocincta of Ochsenheimer, a species new to Britain. It is 

 not uncommon in Hungary, the South of France c., and is easily dis- 

 tinguished from P. flamcincta by the following characters : -The 

 superior wings are bluish-grey, thickly irrorated with black, inter- 

 spersed with minute orange dots ; and a narrow black band occupies 

 the centre of the wing, extending from the costa to the inner margin. 

 The inferior wings are white in the male, without any median line, 

 and nearly black in the female. It is variable in size and in the in- 

 tensity of the markings. I possess a fine series from France and 

 Germany " (< Entom.,' vol. iii., p. 349). Mr. Carrington figures, what 

 is, compared with our ordinary British form, a variety of Folia nigro- 

 cincta, which from the bright orange suffusion would appear to be the 

 type. He writes : " We are indebted to Mr. Clarence E. Fry, for 

 permission to figure this beautiful variety. It is one of some forty 

 specimens of Folia nigrocincta, bred by Mr. E. G. Meek, from larva) 

 collected in 1877 by Mr. Pankhurst in the Isle of Man, while he was 

 jointly employed by Mr. Fry and Mr. Meek to collect Lepidoptera in 

 that Island. The larvae were transferred to London. No particular 

 variety was observed amongst the larvse, which were fed on sea-pink 

 (Armeria maritima) and sea-plantain (Flantago maritima). The imagines 

 of this species seldom vary either in colour or markings. Nor do the 

 other British species in the genus Folia, with the exception of the north- 

 eastern form of Folia chi, called olivacea. The variety under notice is 

 so unlike the original type as to be difficult to identify. The woodcut 

 gives a general idea of the appearance. Instead of the usual bright 

 black and white of the superior wings, they are suffused with bright 

 orange colour, with here and there a small patch of grey. The stig- 

 mata are strongly marked. The orbicular being filled in with bright 

 sandy-red. The usual black markings are very pale in colour ; in 



