60 VAfclETlfiS Of 



(' Entom.,' vol. xvii., p. 3). Treitschke's diagnosis of the species is : 

 " Folia alis anticis fusco cinereis, fascia media obscuriore, stigmatibus 

 strigaque externa flavicantibus." To this he adds : " Sweden is the 

 fatherland of this species and not Austria as remarked by Hiibner. 

 It is considered a great rarity in Germany. It is about the size of 

 polymita, head and back very thickly clothed with scales, brown-grey, 

 the abdomen more yellowish. The antennas of the male are more 

 strongly pectinated than is usual in the latter species. The fore 

 wings, head and thorax are uniform in colour ; the basal line 

 is double ; the orbicular and reniform are small and yellowish-white ; 

 the angulated line turns inwards under the reniform, but turns out- 

 wards again near the inner margin ; the subterminal consists of a 

 strongly lunulated line. The fringes are grey. The hind wings are 

 yellowish-grey, with darker transverse line and lunule " (' Die Schmet. 

 von Europa,' pt. 2, pp. 23-24). It is not always that the basal and 

 angulated transverse lines are sufficiently pale and well-developed to 

 give the central area a banded appearance, but I have such specimens 

 in my cabinet. 



a. var. ochracca, mihi. The whole of the fore wings of a pale and 

 clear ochreous colour with slightly darker edgings to the pale transverse 

 lines and stigmata, the subterminal line continuous and not broken up 

 into spots by the dark nervures as it is in the darker type. My most 

 ochreous specimen came from Leicester,. whilst Mr. Weir (as before 

 mentioned) reports the form from the Shetlands. 



/?. var. mjfusa, mihi. Of a very dark grey with the typical 

 ochreous transverse lines almost obsolete, but the darker edgings to 

 these lines showing up still darker than the ground colour, the 

 only ochreous in the fore wings being a tiny orbicular and a few 

 obsolete dots following the subterminal. The hind wings grey with 

 two darker transverse lines. My darkest specimens came from 

 Barnsley. 



Cleoceris, Bdv., viminalis, Fab. 



This is one of the most interesting species in the British fauna, so 

 far as its tendency to melanism is concerned. In certain parts of 

 Yorkshire, Derbyshire and the more northerly counties of England, 

 quite black forms occur, which are very different from the greyish-white 

 specimens from Kent, or the glossy silvery-grey specimens from the 

 Shetland Isles. Of Cleoceris viminalis from Hoy, Mr. Gregson writes : 

 " Large ; bright silvery ground colour, with well-pronounced mark- 

 ings " (' Young Nat.,' vol. vi., p. 274). Though I have bred a large 

 number of specimens from larvas taken in Kent, I never obtained a black 

 one, although, a type specimen, with the basal half dark (blackish), and 

 the outer half grey, occasionally occurs. A beautiful intermediate form, 

 with a tendency to a melanic ground colour with silvery-grey markings 

 occurs at Darlington, and some pale specimens have the costal area 

 strongly red. The type is perhaps the rarest form in Britain. It is 

 described by Fabricius as: " Noctua viminalis , cristata, alis incum- 

 bentibus (deflexis) basi fuscis : strigis undatis fulvis apice cinereis " 

 (' Gen. Insec.' &c., p. 284). Borkhausen, under the name of saliceti, 

 also describes the type. He writes : " The basal half of the fore 

 wings is dark brown, the other half pale grey, as in B. coryli " (' Natur- 



