IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 53 



line and central shade darker grey in colour. The central area, between 

 the complete basal line and elbowed line, greener and ha vino- a slightly 

 banded appearance" (/. c., PI. 21, fig. 2). Staudinger simply says: 

 " pallidior." 



Epunda, Dup., lutulenta, Bkh. 



The capture of a beautiful series of this species at Sligo, in 

 Ireland, by Mr. Percy Euss, led at once to a great deal of writing 

 about the varieties of this species. One of the professional collectors, 

 Mr. Salvage, then spent a summer in Ireland, and brought home with 

 him a very extensive and variable series. The type agrees very well 

 with our South of England form, in which the brownish-black ground 

 colour is decidedly dusted with grey. Borkhausen writes of the type : 

 " It is the size of N. exclamationis. The ground colour of the fore 

 wings dull brown-black, slightly glossy, and tinted with reddish- 

 ochreous, which, however, is only seen in fresh specimens. There 

 are 3 indistinct, somewhat darker-bordered transverse lines. Close to 

 the hind margin is a lighter angulated line which forms a Latin W 

 in the middle." " The fore wings are blackish-brown, glossy, with 

 an obsolete dot in the middle. Hind wings whitish, shaded with 

 brown-black on the costa." " In some vars. the transverse lines are 

 scarcely to be seen, there being indeed, only a faint trace of them " 

 (' Naturgeschichte ' &c., p. 576). In Britain, we appear to get five 

 distinct forms : 1. Unicolorous ashy-grey. 2. Unicolorous brown- 

 black. 3. Ashy grey, with black central band. 4. Glossy black, 

 with blacker lines. 5. Glossy black, with white lines. The first is 

 undoubtedly the consimilis of Stephens ; the second, the type = lutulenta, 

 Bkh. ; the third, var. sedi, Gn. ; the fourth = the luneburgensis of Freyer ; 

 whilst the fifth has been erroneously referred to luneburgensis by 

 Dr. Staudinger, and also by several recent writers in our English 

 magazines. Besides these, there are some minor varieties, which will 

 be dealt with in the descriptions following. I will only add here 

 that Staudinger's summary of luneburgensis : " Nigricans, fasciis 

 distinctis albis " (' Catalog,' p. 95), is entirely erroneous as far as the 

 typical description and figure of Freyer are concerned, and seems to 

 have been due to an error, based on the examination of Herrich- 

 Schaffer's figures, where the glossy traces of the transverse lines are 

 coloured paler, and thus misled Staudinger into calling them " white." 

 Of course there is the possibility of white-lined forms occurring on 

 the Continent, such as we now know occur in the Orkneys, and 

 Dr. Staudinger may have seen such, but by no stretch of the imagina- 

 tion could such specimens be made to agree with the luneburgensis of 

 Freyer. This error on the part of Staudinger, led to Mr. W. F. de 

 V. Kane adopting his description, both, apparently, overlooking the 

 fact that Freyer's luneburgensis is the type of the variety and not 

 Herrich-Schaffer's figures, in which, as I have stated, I see nothing 

 but an attempt to figure the pale gloss by which the transverse lines 

 are indicated. Although Mr. Kane's note is, therefore, not based 

 altogether on correct data, it shows sufficient research to be quoted at 

 length. He writes : " Several variations of this insect are described 

 by Guene'e and Herrich-Schaffer, none of which seem to me to 

 correspond to the dark brown form taken in Scotland, in Galway by 

 Mr. More ; and in Sligo by Mr, Buss, This passes, I find, under the 



