6 VARIETIES OF NOCTILS5 



a. var albilinea, Haw. Humphrey and Westwood write of this 

 variety under the name of albidilinea. This species measures 1 inch 

 in expanse and is very closely allied to the preceding insect, of which 

 it is regarded as a probable variety by Curtis and Stephens, with the 

 markings suffused, the pale patch at the anal angle of the fore wings 

 being obliterated, and the subapical pale flexuous striga very rudi- 

 mental. It is captured in company with the preceding species, 

 according to Mr. Stephens, but very rarely" (' British Moths,' p. 241). 

 This is not the albidilinea of Haworth to which Humphrey and West- 

 wood refer it, for the latter is a variety of Mamestra brassicce, but it 

 is the Phytometra albilinea of that author which he describes as 

 follows : " Phytometra alis fusco nigro alboque varie cinereis, striga 

 flexuosa alba pone stigmata, posticis fuscis." " Praecedenti (fusca) 

 simillima, et vix differt, nisi in absentia maculae albae anguli ani, et in 

 striga flexuosa juxta marginem posticum fere omnino obliterate " 

 (< Lepidop. Brit./ p. 261). 



/?. var. guenei, Fallou. This variety illustrates one of those strange 

 facts that are being repeatedly met with, viz., that when an odd variety 

 of a species is captured alone and not with other specimens which 

 give a clue to its actual identity, it is often located far away from the 

 species to which it actually belongs. When this variety of fasciana 

 was first described by Fallou, he placed it in Bryophila and compared 

 it with B. algce. He wrote : " This belongs to the algae group, 

 although it differs from that species very much in colour, and it should 

 be placed between receptricula and algce. It has the size and shape of 

 the latter, but all its wings are proportionally larger, or, if one prefers 

 it, shorter, and the inferior wings, in place of having the well-marked 

 sinus which is seen opposite the cellule in all Bryophilce, are only a 

 little less rounded in this part. The superior wings are of a clear 

 wood-coloured brown, or of the tint of fresh nuts, mixed with darker 

 brown, principally in the median space. In this darker area, the three 

 ordinary stigmata, very pale and almost white in colour, stand out 

 conspicuously. The reniform is of average size, regular, and with a 

 well-marked outline ; the orbicular small and less clearly marked and 

 almost touching the transverse line. The two median lines are placed 

 somewhat similarly to those in algce, and the elbowed line is followed 

 on the inner margin by a broad clear space, in which the subterminal 

 line which is indistinct, is absorbed. The fringe, which is alternately 

 light and dark, is preceded by a series of well-marked blackish dots, 

 of which the fifth is the larger. The inferior wings are uniformly 

 pale brown (which is remarkable in this genus* where the wings are 

 always paler towards the base), with the fringe slightly speckled. 

 Their undersides are of a very pale grey, tinted with reddish on the 

 costa and inner angle, with the cellular lunule and a fine undulated 

 line, darker. The thorax is varied with nut-brown and blackish, 

 and the abdomen is grey-brown with the crests darker. I took 

 two exactly similar examples of this Noctuelle, in the park of the 

 Chateau de Pan (Basses- Pyrenees), on the 24th July, 1859. I regret 

 not having sufficiently noticed the species when I found it, for it is 

 probable that these two specimens were not the only ones in this 

 locality " ('Ann. Soc. Ent. France,' 1864, p. 27). Some time after, M. 



*It must be remembered that Fallou placed this in Bryophila. 



