IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. V 



tudinal basal line under the median nervure; a pale subterminal line, 

 a dark area bordering the subterminal line internally and a dark 

 central shade with fineblack longitudinal lines (cuneiform spots ?) joining 

 these shades. These specimens are very differently coloured to the 

 figure in Humphrey and Westwood's ' British Moths,' pi. liii., fig. 21, 

 although the markings are identical in both. Of the occurrence of this 

 species in Britain and its capture by Dr. Battersby (vide, Thalpochares 

 parva) Mr. Stainton writes : " That Micro, ostrina, not taken here 

 since 1826, should occur simultaneously in different parts of the 

 country, is certainly startling, though from all accounts the habit of 

 the insect is so retired that it seems but natural, even if the insect 

 were about, that it should escape observation " (' Ent. Ann.,' 1859, 

 p. 145). In Newman's < British Moths,' we find: "The moth 

 appears on the wing in June, and has been taken in one English and 

 one Welsh county only, Devonshire and Glamorganshire. Mr. 

 Beading records the capture of a specimen at Torquay, by Miss 

 Battersby, and Mr. Stainton says one specimen was taken at Bideford, 

 in June, 1825 " (< British Moths,' p. 447). The Welsh locality is thus 

 recorded by Mr. Llewelyn : " It was in the month of July, a few 

 years since, that I captured, on the sand hills at Pembrey, South 

 Wales, a pretty little insect whose identity I have, until lately, been 

 utterly unable to establish. The spot at which I secured it was rather 

 barren and sandy, in a sheltered situation ; an abundance of dwarf 

 sallow grew in the vicinity, and also, as far as I remember, thistles, 

 bed-straw, wild thyme, and a short kind of grass, from which latter 

 I expect that I disturbed it ; at any rate, the insect was flying low 

 over the barren sand when I caught it. The day was showery, with 

 occasional gleams of sunshine, during which Hipparchia semele and 

 other butterflies were on the wing, and during one of these gleams I 

 took the insect, and, seeing that it was something I did not know, 

 boxed and pinned it at once. The recollection of the capture is very 

 fresh in my mind, owing to the pleasure of the expedition and the 

 difficulty 1 have had in getting the insect named " (' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' 

 vol. i., p. 282). The most recent captures are recorded in the 

 ' Entomologist,' vol. xiii., p. 242 and ' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. xvii., 

 p. 135, by Dr. Battershell Gill at Dover on September 8th, 1880 ; and 

 from the Dorset coast * Ent.,' xiii., 282, by Mr. Dale. The description 

 I made of Hiibner's type is as follows : ' Anterior wings of a beautiful 

 rosy colour, with a central shade made of blackish dots ; reniform 

 small and black ; subterminal pale grey, with a transverse series of 

 black longitudinal, wedge-shaped spots (comparatively large) on inner 

 edge of subterminal. Hind wings grey, base paler " (' Sammlung 

 europ. Schmet.,' fig. 399). 



a. var. cestivalis, Gn. Guenee's description of this variety is : 

 " A little smaller. The rosy colour has entirely disappeared and is 

 replaced by a yellowish straw colour or reddish. All the markings are 

 partly obliterated, and the black colour remains only at the apex and 

 in the orbicular stigma. The inferior wings are white, with the border 

 barely yellowish " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 247). Staudinger's diag- 

 nosis is : " Pallidior absque colore roseo " (* Catalog,' p. 133). 



/3. var. carthami, H.-S. Staudinger's diagnosis of this variety 

 is : " Al. ant. unicolor. stramineis, apice infuscato " ( Catalog,' p. 133). 



