98 VARIETIES OF NOCTU^i 



the darker ones. The subterminal line is very indistinct in some 

 specimens, the position being indicated by an external transverse row 

 of small black dentate marks. As in many other species, which have 

 the peculiar ashy ground colour of this species, many specimens 

 (especially if freshly emerged) have a delicate rosy tint as in the 

 parallel instances of Cuspidia tridens, Noctua glareosa &c. I have a 

 specimen which has no markings except a transverse row of linear 

 black dots on the outer margin, but this is evidently due to some form 

 of disease, as the edges of the wings show that it has not undergone 

 complete development. The following appear to be the principal 

 forms : 1. Ground colour pale ashy-grey, slightly fuscous = areola, 

 Esp. 2. Ground colour blackish-grey, strongly marked with a longitu- 

 dinal, black central line = var. suffusa. 3. Strongly tinted with rosy 

 = var. rosea. The palest form is Esper's type. His figure has a bluish- 

 grey tint, especially around the stigmata and on the outer margin, 

 whilst his diagnosis is : " Alis cinerascenti-fuscis, postice seriebus 

 duabus denticulatis nigris in fascia alba, macula magna rectangula disci, 

 minoribus baseos et versus marginem internum " (' Die Schmet. in 

 Abbildungen,' p. 448 ; pi. 141, fig. 4). 



a. var. suffusa, mihi. This is of a blackish-grey ground colour 

 with distinct markings, especially the central line, which runs from 

 the base through the claviform and under the orbicular and reniform 

 to the elbowed line. The area around the stigmata and the outer 

 margin is also strongly marked in blackish. My darkest specimens 

 have come from Brentwood, Bournemouth, and Farnboro' (Kent), 

 where they occur occasionally with the paler type. 



/?. var, rosea, mihi. This is a slight modification of the type in 

 which the ground colour is suffused with rosy. It is, in fact, the 

 lithorhiza of Guene'e where he writes : " Of an ashy-grey colour, 

 slightly rosy " (' Noctuelles,' vi., p. 111). 



Cloantha, Bdv., polyodon, Cl. (perspicillaris, Linn.). 



This species is hardly known as British. There are two records 

 only, both given in Newman's ' British Moths,' p. 425. Of Clerck's 

 figure I made the following description : " Anterior wings brownish- 

 fuscous with the basal area white, a broad, white, longitudinal patch 

 running out of the basal area, along the central nervure as far as the 

 whitish -ochreo us reniform with which the patch is joined by three 

 fine white lines. The space between the elbowed and subterminal 

 lines white, especially in the upper parts ; the subterminal, W-shaped 

 and white ; the costal area dark brownish-fuscous ; a fine white edge 

 to inner margin ; area under white patch in stigmatal area ochreous- 

 yellow. Hind wings grey, paler base " (' Icones,' PI. ii., fig. 2). Of 

 the early occurrence of this species in Britain, Mr. Stainton writes : 

 " A single specimen of Cloantha perspicillaris was taken by the late Mr. 

 Paget near Yarmouth, the capture of which is recorded in the ' Ento- 

 mologist,' June, 1841, page 128, whilst the specimen is in the collection 

 of Mr. Doubleday. The species is figured and described in Humphrey 

 and Westwood's ' British Moths,' vol. i., p. 230; pi. LI., fig. 1. Accord- 

 ing to Guenee, the species is widely dispersed on the Continent, but 

 ' never very abundant.' ' The larva feeds in July and August on 

 Hypericum '" (' Ent. Ann.,' 1855, p. 16); whilst Mr. Stainton further 



