IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 47 



is broader with a blackish fascia crossing it, and contains the orbicular 

 and reniform which are paler but filled in with blackish, also the 

 small claviform. The angulated line separates the second and third 

 divisions ; the latter contains the pale subterminal on which is placed 

 five cuneiform spots. The hind wings of the males are whitish, witli 

 a brownish stripe before the white fringe. Those of the females are 

 grey" ('Die Schmet. von Europa,' vol. v., pp. 32-33). The greater 

 part of our British specimens are of this ashy-grey tint with 

 a central band and a minimum of yellow scales. Such would, 

 therefore, belong to var. nigrocincta. The same form with more 

 orange scales becomes var. statices, Gregson. How Staudinger makes 

 this variety " paler " than the type, I am at a loss to understand. 

 Hiibner's figure, as I have before stated, is of a very " pale grey " tint, 

 mottled with yellow, whilst nigrocincta is " ashy-grey," mottled with 

 black. 



P. var. nivescens, Stdgr. Staudinger says of this variety : " Multo 

 pallidior, al. ant. albicant. nigro flavoque irroratis " (' Catalog,' p. 97), 

 the locality which he gives being " Helvetia." 



y. var. statices, Gregs. It is very doubtful whether, among our 

 British specimens of this species, occasional individuals do not occur 

 which belong to the type, and to each of the named varieties, but, at 

 the same time, our British specimens generally, have a racial appear- 

 ance, as do so many other of our species, and hence the form has been 

 named statices by Mr. Gregson. He writes : " On the Continent this 

 species varies very much, some specimens being difficult to separate 

 from P. flaricincta, whilst others want the yellowish tones which enrich 

 that species ; but I have not yet seen or heard of a single specimen of 

 our dark form occurring anywhere except in the Isle of Man, and I 

 think that, as the Manx specimens are all of one type, it would be ad- 

 visable to call them var. statices" ('Entom. Mo. Mag.,' vol. vi., p. 65). 

 The great and only character of var. statices, the type of which has 

 kindly been submitted to me by Mr. Sydney Webb, would appear to 

 be a strong development of the dark central shade, which almost 

 assumes a banded form, otherwise the coloration, especially the de- 

 velopment of yellow, is quite typical. But these special characters are 

 exactly those of Treitschke's nigrocincta, but whilst nigrocincta has 

 scarcely any yellow markings, statices is nearly as well coloured as the 

 type in this respect. 



Polia, Tr., flamcincta, Fab. 



This species, like the rest of the genus, varies in the direction of 

 forming local races, and among our British specimens we have two 

 very distinct forms : (1) Pale greyish, mottled with yellow the 

 type, which appears generally distributed. (2) A much darker and 

 more localised form, strongly powdered with black scales, which is 

 much more restricted, but is the ordinary form taken in the 

 Huddersfield district. There is another dubious variety from Sicily 

 called calvescens which will be described in detail. I believe the 

 variety is genuine enough, for I have a most striking specimen, 

 apparently identical with it, which was given to me by Mr. Mason of 

 Clevedon, where it was captured. The type of the species is thus 

 described by Fabricius: " JV. cristata, alis dentatis deflexis fusco 



