IN TTIE BRITISn ISLANDS. 33 



are grey-brown, rather paler at the base, where they have darker 

 wing-rays : the head, thorax and body are grey-brown, the latter 

 with long reddish scales at the sides near the tip. The moth is an 

 inhabitant of North America, Italy, Sicily and the South of France ; 

 it appears on the wing in June and August. A single specimen is 

 said to have been taken at Alphington, near Exeter, by Mr. D'Orville, 

 on the 13th of August, 1868, flying over the flowers of red valerian. 

 I made use of the qualified term ' is said,' because the details given 

 by Dr. Knaggs, in the ' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' vol. v., 

 p. 127, and in the * Annual ' for 1868, p. 125, do not agree with the 

 authentic examples of this species from the Continent of Europe kindly 

 given me by Mr. Doubleday and described above " (' British Moths,' 

 pp. 455-456). 



The moth was first recorded as British in the ' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' 

 vol. v., p. 107 where we read that the Rev. J. Hellins sent a specimen 

 captured by Mr. D'Orville to the editors of that magazine. The note 

 by Mr. Knaggs (just previously referred to) and which was written on 

 receipt of this specimen is as follows : " Plusia ni, Hb. (first noticed 

 by Engramelle under the name of L'ajoutte) is closely allied to our 

 common P. gamma, for a variety of which it might easily at first sight 

 be passed over. It also presents some slight points of resemblance to 

 P. interrogation , and between these two species it will have to be 

 placed in our lists and cabinets. As it can only be confounded with 

 gamma and then, mind, only at first sight I have thought it ad- 

 visable to lay before our readers some of the more striking points 

 wherein it differs from that species, which I hope may call attention 

 to its peculiarities, and perhaps lead to the detection of other examples 

 in our collections. The alar expanse is less than that of gamma, the 

 forewings are less acute at their apices, and lack the smooth, burnished, 

 bronzy lustre of gamma ; or, to put it the other way, the contrast be- 

 tween the ground colour, which is blackish, and the markings, which 

 are, say, rosy-ferruginous, give ni a duller and more mottled appear- 

 ance ; the letter-mark in the specimen before me is shaped somewhat 

 as in v-aureum thus \ . or .V, but I find, on examining a series 

 that though this character is usually pretty constant, it is by no means 

 invariably so. The hind wings are much as in gamma, but blacker 

 in hue : the palpi are smaller, the antenna} finer, and in the abdomen of 

 the $ we find still better characters ; here the dorsal tuft is of a yellow 

 ochreous colour, the tufts of ochreous scales fringe the sides of the 

 last segments, terminating underneath the anal segments in an och- 

 reous patch " (' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' vol. v., p. 127). 



The most important contribution to our knowledge ot the species, 

 however, came from Prof. Zeller translated from the l Isis,' 1847, 

 p. 449, where he writes : " As Treitschke correctly observes, Plusia 

 ni, when on the wing, has a great resemblance to P. gamma, and it re- 

 quires very sharp powers of observation to recognise the buzzing 

 NOCTUA, by its grey colour, as Phisia ni. Near Syracuse, on the 30th 

 May, I took a wasted male in a fallow field, where, when started up, 

 it settled again to sleep on a vine leaf, instead of buzzing at flowers, 

 as is usual. Gamma sometimes settles again in the same way, and, 

 indeed, I had almost passed this specimen for gamma. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Catania I found specimens of the second brood, on the 



