112 VARIETIES OP NOCTILSS 



shade is edged on its outer half, as it sometimes is, with whitish, it 

 throws it up very distinctly. In one ? from Weymouth, the white 

 has a tendency to spread in the central area. Two $ specimens from 

 a Gloucestershire brood exhibit a similar tendency and have at the 

 same time, pale hind wings, thus copying scrophularice. Strange to 

 say the Weymouth specimen mentioned has also pale hind wings. 

 The colour of the hind wings varies, but the variation is not sexual, 

 the colour of those of both sexes extends from pale grey with a 

 narrow blackish marginal band to wholly black, but those of the 

 females are generally darker than those of the males. Guenee 

 writes : " The specimens from the South of France are larger, darker, 

 with the paler area more ashy " (' Noctuelles,' vi., p. 127). The type 

 is thus described by Linnaeus : " Noctua spirilinguis cristata, alis de- 

 flexis obsoletis margine laterali f uscis." " Phalcena similis Ph. exsoleta, 

 sed dimidio brevior " (' Sy sterna Natures,' xth., p. 515). I would add 

 that there is considerable difference in the size of various specimens ; 

 and bred specimens, which appear to have been kept somewhat short 

 of food in the larval stage, generally present a considerable narrowing 

 of the wings frequently accompanied by positive signs of malformation. 



Cucullia, Schrk., scrophularice, Capieux, Esp. 



It is almost impossible to explain why Newman should say that " it 

 is extremely difficult to distinguish this from the preceding species 

 (verbasci) when in the perfect state " (< British Moths,' p. 432), as only 

 occasional pale specimens of verbasci could in any way be mistaken for 

 this decidedly paler and more coarsely scaled species. It is, however, 

 very much more like lychnitis, which is, as insisted on by Guenee, a much 

 narrower-winged species. Lychnitis moreover, appears at a later period 

 of the year in June and July, scrophularice emerging in April and May 

 (Guenee gives March and April), so that if collectors keep their spring 

 emergences distinct, they should have very little trouble in coming to 

 a correct conclusion. The anterior wings have the central area pale 

 ochreous, sometimes almost whitish-ochreous, the costal margin blacker 

 than (not so brown as in) verbasci, the inner marginal band narrower, 

 whilst the darker nervures give the central area a more striated ap- 

 pearance, the linear mark just above the anal angle is also blacker. 

 The hind wings of the male appear to be nearly always pale with a 

 narrow brownish border, but there is some difference, and I have what 

 appears to be a male, in which the hind wings are dark. The hind 

 wings of the female generally have a broader band, but they are some- 

 times unicolorous-blackish. Guenee very rightly observes, too, that 

 this species has " the fore wings less strongly toothed than verbasc,!, 

 proportionately broader and less pointed at the apex. The colour more 

 yellow, with the dark parts of a brown colour, inclining to blackish 

 rather than to ferruginous, the costa more ashy, the terminal side of the 

 dark triangle,less marked and not reaching the 2nd inferior (vein) ; the 

 discoidal spots more marked and more numerous, above all in the fe- 

 males. The two sub-costal streaks blacker and less isolated. The inferior 

 wings paler with the border more conspicuous. The abdomen shorter 

 and more conical" (' Noctuelles,' vi., pp. 327-128). These are the 

 exact points of distinction as we know scrophularice. In 1891, it was 

 questioned whether this species was British, when I wrote : ' This 



