26 VABIETIES OF NOCTIL3! 



have supplied our cabinets with long series of this species. The 

 latest addition to our British localities has been the neighbourhood of 

 Swansea, where it was discovered by Captain Robertson. 



Plusia, Och., br actea, Fab. 



This species and the following show in their metallic blotches all 

 the characters of the y moths jota, pulchrina, gamma and interro- 

 gationis, although the marks are developed as solid blotches in this 

 species and festwce and have not merely the outlines of a golden 

 colour as in jota and the allied species. Consequently, we find very 

 considerable variation in the size and shape of the spot, sometimes it 

 is lengthened out with every appearance of a letter y but with the 

 upper part quite solid ; generally, however, this y appearance is lost 

 in a blotch of irregular form which is scarcely identical in any two 

 specimens in my rather long series. The stigmata are only traceable 

 in two or three of my specimens. The type is thus described by 

 Fabricius : " Noctua cristata alis deflexis variegatis : macula magna 

 media aurea nitida.*' " Caput et thorax obscure ferruginea. Alee 

 anticte cinereo, fusco, ferrugineoque varise. In medio macula magna, 

 angulata, nitida aurea. Posticae cinerese " (' Mantissa,' p. 161). This 

 is the rarest of those species ordinarily obtainable in Britain (i.e. ex- 

 cluding aurifera, moneta, illustris, bimaculata and nf) and appears to be 

 confined more especially to the North of England, the South of 

 Scotland and various parts of Ireland. I am particularly indebted to 

 Messrs. Russ of Sligo and Finlay of Morpeth for some very fine 

 specimens. 



Plusia, Och., fcstucce, Linn. 



This species, to my mind the most beautiful in the genus, has the 

 arrangement of the metallic blotches somewhat in the manner of 

 bractea and moneta combined. In the metallic blotches in the centre 

 of the wing it shows the intermediate stage between the solid Y-like 

 blotch in bractea and the distinct y mark in iota, pulclirina &c. On the 

 other hand, the basal and apical marks on the costa are almost exact 

 reproductions of the similar marks in moneta and the tendency to 

 inner marginal patches also occurs in both species. I have no speci- 

 men in which the two central patches are actually united, although in 

 some specimens they approach one another very nearly indeed. 

 There is but little variation in the ground colour, although some 

 specimens are rather paler than others. The golden blotches at the 

 base of the costa, at the apex, and two in the centre of the wing are 

 always present, although the apical spot is sometimes more or less 

 restricted owing to the spread of the ground colour. There are some 

 oblique patches on the inner margin, passing towards the central 

 spots, also an anal patch running up the subterminal area and parallel 

 to the outer margin. Both the inner marginal and anal patches vary, 

 sometimes, forming conspicuous metallic blotches of considerable size, 

 sometimes being altogether absent and replaced by the ground colour. 

 I fail to find the stigmata in this species. Guenee writes : " I have 

 seen a specimen from North America which in no way differs from ours " 

 (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 337). The Linnsean description of the type 

 is as follows : " Noctua spirilinguis cristata, alis deflexis : superior!- 



