20 VARIETIES OF NOCTILE 



p. 223). Referring to Mr. Barrett's communication Mr. Dale writes : 

 " Mr. Barrett in the ' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' xxv., p. 223, in recording some 

 old insects in the collection of the Rev. Henry Burney, has apparently 

 fallen into some mistakes, which I will try to rectify, and also furnish 

 some additional information. " One is a very beautiful Plusia, obtained 

 sixty years ago from Mr. Charles Dale, who had it from the collection 

 of Dr. Abbott a rather noted collector at the end of the last century." 

 " This specimen is Plusia aurifera, Hb." " There is nothing to indicate 

 whether the present specimen is the same as was formerly in Mr. 

 Ingpen's collection, or another." My father, who is above referred to, 

 purchased the collection of Dr. Abbott, after his death in 1817. The 

 Doctor's diary commenced in 1798, and concluded in 1801 ; Abel 

 Ingpen was born in 1796, and died in 1854. If the specimen came 

 from Dr. Abbott's collection, it is therefore a foreign one, and con- 

 sequently, was not valued by my father ; had it been a British one, 

 he would not have parted with it, and it would have been recorded 

 both in Dr. Abbott's manuscripts and also in my father's. Perhaps 

 the following passage from Stephens' "Illustrations," Haustellata, 

 vol. iii., p. 105, may throw some light on the subject : ' One was 

 taken near Dover by the late Rev. J. Lyon, and is now in the British 

 Museum ; the other was, I believe, found in the vicinity of the me- 

 tropolis, and at present forms a prominent ornament of a collection at 

 Manchester, having been rescued from oblivion by Mr. Ingpen.' The 

 specimen is not in the sale catalogue of Mr. Ingpen's collection in 

 1855 " (<Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. xxv., p. 246). This little appears to be 

 all that is known of aurifera as a British species, and this little is 

 unsatisfactory enough. Hiibner's description of the type is as 

 follows: "Anterior wings bright red with three yellowish costal 

 streaks near the base, the orbicular surrounded with white, the reniform 

 with fuscous ; a large yellow patch from apex extends down the sub- 

 terminal area almost to the anal angle, then turns at an obtuse angle 

 parallel to the base under the reniform and orbicular, stopping where 

 the complete basal line is usually situated. Hind wings dark grey, 

 base paler " (< Sammlung europ. Schmet.,' fig. 463). Guenee, after 

 describing this species, writes : " It is said that this species inhabits 

 Southern Spain, and that it has also been taken in the neighbourhood 

 of Rochefort. I cannot confirm this statement, but I suspect all the 

 specimens I have seen have been exotic. Almost all come from 

 different parts of Africa" (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 335). Guenee 

 then describes a var. A of which he writes : " Of a pale testaceous- 

 grey. The gilded band as in the type but of a pale and greenish 

 gold. Thorax almost unicolorous. The lower part of the inferior 

 wings has a broad, darker, terminal band. Java, Bourbon " (I.e., p. 

 336). 



Plusia , Och., moneta, Fab. 



This species, quite recently added to the British fauna, is cha- 

 racterised by a strong central transverse fascia, and a golden ear-shaped 

 mark, made up of the orbicular, and the pale mark under it which 

 becomes conspicuous as a metallic blotch in P. bractea, and festucce, 

 but which is, in this species, of a pale golden colour surrounded with 

 an U-shaped mark of brighter tint. This compound mark is quiet 



