48 VARIETIES OF 



cinereoque variis fulvo punctatis." " Caput cinereum basi parum 

 fulvum. Thorax cinereus atomis fuscis fulvisque. Alas anticse fusco 

 cinereoque variegatse punctis sparsis fulvis. Costa albo punctata. 

 Postica? cinere?e supra striga, subtus puncto strigaque fuscis " 

 (' Mantissa,' p. 178). Our British specimens vary from a pale 

 ochreous-vvhite with most of the dark markings contracted into a 

 restricted space under the stigmata, through a pale grey with dark 

 grey and distinct ochreous markings, to a blackish-grey sometimes 

 strongly suffused with orange, at other times with the orange almost 

 obsolete. 



a. var. meridionalis, Bdv. Guenee describes this dark variety in 

 full. He writes : " The blackish atoms are so numerous that they 

 give to the wing a deep ashy ground colour in the male, and a 

 greyish-black in the female. The orange colour is also more intense, 

 and the patches of this colour on the subterminal line are covered 

 here and there with indistinct black spots, which lose their cuneiform 

 shape. The inferior wings are notably darker, well marked with 

 blackish, the lunule is well defined and almost touches the median 

 line above, whilst on its lower edge where it is yet better marked, it 

 is as far removed from it as in the type " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi. pp. 39- 

 40). Milliere writes of this variety: "This Pyrenean race is of a 

 very deep grey in all four wings, this colour passing frequently into 

 black in certain specimens, which, then, almost lose the ordinary 

 lines and orange spots " (' Iconog. et Des.' &c., vol. ii.). This form 

 only occurs in one British locality to my knowledge, viz., at 

 Huddersfield, whence I have received it from Mr. Porritt. Mr. 

 Hodges also takes it in Guernsey. In recording this form he 

 writes : " I secured a very fine series of P. jiavicincta, at rest on the 

 rough stone walls near St. Sampson's. These specimens are much 

 more richly mottled and generally darker, with more orange markings, 

 than any I have seen in England " (* Ent. Record/ i., p. 249). Guenee 

 says : " This variety is to flavicincta, what xanthomista is to ninro- 

 cincta " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 140). Surely this is an error. As 

 meridionalis is the dark var. of Jiavicincta, so nigrocincta is the dark 

 form of xanthomista. Boisduval's original description is "valde 

 obscurior " (< Gen. et. Ind. Meth.,' p. 127). 



ft. var. calvescens, Bdv. This var. is paler than the type and 

 Guenee thus writes of it : " I must own that I dare no longer 

 consider this Folia as distinct, since I have better studied it. It 

 differs essentially from the type, only in that the bottom line on the 

 inferior wings is less wavy, and owing to that is nearer the lunule, 

 this line is also much fainter. The inferior wings are generally, of 

 an almost unicolorous grey above, with the markings obsolete. They 

 appear to me a little more rounded. The superior wings have the 

 fringes less intersected and crenulate than in the type, the 

 markings are less distinct, especially the subterminal. As to colour, 

 it does not differ from that of flavicincta in the two females of 

 M. Boisduval, and the yellow has only disappeared in that, which he 

 has, I believe, described as a male, owing to the specimen being worn." 

 " Sicily " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 40). Dr. Staudinger gives it as a 

 var. of flavicmcta with a mark of doubt, and adds " or a var. of 

 rufocmcta " (' Catalog,' p. 96). For myself, I believe it to be, as I have 



