24 VARIETIES OF NOCTILE 



Haworth described this species as British, although he had himself 

 seen none but German specimens ; he says : ' Mr. Donovan informs 

 me that he took it in Wales.' It was figured by Curtis, and also by 

 Noel Humphreys ; Professor Westwood stating (' British Moths,' 

 p. 231) that ' it was formerly taken in some numbers on Salisbury 

 Plain.' For the same reason it was described by Mr. Stainton in the 

 ' Manual '; but it was placed by Mr. Doubleday in his last list among the 

 reputed British species. Probably Mr. Burney's is one of the original 

 specimens, wherever they were obtained from : we have no recent 

 record of its occurrence in this country, except a statement in the 

 Entomologist ' for February, 1889, that a specimen occurred in 

 Ireland in 1887 " (< Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. xxv., pp. 223-224). Re- 

 ferring to Mr. Barrett's communication, Mr. Dale writes : " Mr. 

 Barrett goes on to say : * Another of the specimens in question is a 

 Plusia t'Uusfr &, which also came from an old British collection.' I possess 

 a couple which were given to my father by Dr. Leach, who informed 

 him they were taken on Salisbury Plain by a Mr. Spratt in 1810. 

 Mr. Burney's specimen probably also came from Dr. Leach " (' Ent. 

 Mo. Mag.,' vol. xxv., p. 246). 



Of the recent occurrence of Plusia illustris in Ireland, Mr. G. H. 

 Carpenter writes: "Among a number of moths taken by Miss Alice 

 Hull, near Castle Kevin, in County Wicklow, in August, 1887, and 

 lately given by her to me for identification, I was greatly surprised to 

 find a specimen of Plusia illustris. The moth is figured in Curtis's 

 ' British Entomology,' vol. xvi., p. 731, published in 1839, and is there 

 recorded as having been taken on Salisbury Plain and in South Wales. 

 Mr. H. T. Stainton has most courteously informed me, that these cap- 

 tures took place before 1810, and that the insect has never since been 

 in Britain. Both he and Mr. de. V. Kane agree that it is quite new 

 to Ireland. The insect is admitted by Humphreys and Westwood into 

 the * British Moths ' (1843). It is to be found among the reputed 

 British species in the l Doubleday list,' but in Mr. South's * List ' it is 

 refused a place even among these. Its reappearance in our Islands, 

 after so many years, is therefore a noteworthy fact. It seoms very 

 strange that, if Miss Hull's specimen is a migrant from the Continent, 

 no individuals have been taken in Great Britain. On the other hand, 

 it is equally strange if the insect has been breeding among us unnoticed 

 over seventy years. The ordinary food-plants of the caterpillar, 

 Thalictrum aquilegifolium and Aconitum lycoctonum, are both confined to 

 the Continent. T. minus, however, occurs sparingly on the Wicklow 

 Coast, and species of both genera may verj possibly be cultivated in 

 the locality " (' Entom.,' vol. xxii., p. 46). 



_ 



Plusia, Och., jchrysitis, Linn. 



This species varies in the tint and arrangement of the metallic 

 markings. In some the tint is yellow, in others green, and the paler 

 colour does not appea^u^ betoken any wearing or to be a result of ex- 

 posure. The glossy ..^earance also, is quite superficial and almost 

 entirely independent of the pigment underlying it, for if the colour in 

 this species become bleached, the gloss remains. In arrangement, the 

 " burnished brass " colour forms two bands, usually united at their 

 centres, but occasionally the bands are distinct owing to the develop- 



