44 VARIETIES OF NOCTtL* 



Chase examples, and to agree with Treitschke's staynicola. This 

 species is the hybridata of Hiibner and Guenee, the staynicola of 

 Treitschke etc., and the anomalata of Stephens. Guenc'e writes of the 

 female : " Smaller, with the superior wings narrower, darker, almost 

 black, partly absorbing the transverse lines and even the reniform ; 

 the orbicular narrower and linear " (' Noctuelles,' vol. vi., p. 434). Of 

 a dark variety of Stillia anomala taken at Kannoch Mr. Wheeler 

 writes : " One fine var., smoky black without markings " (' Ent. Mo. 

 Mag./ vol. xiii., p. 141). Probably this was a female. Haworth's 

 description of the type, which appears to agree more particularly with 

 the form captured in the Midland Counties of England, is as follows : 

 " Phytometra anomala. Alis pallidissime fuscescentibus nigro sub- 

 nebulosis, stigrnatibus ordinariis pallidis divaricatis obsolete pupillatis " 

 ('Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.,' 1812, p. 336). 



a. var. staynicola, Tr. This is the brighter form of the species, 

 with a distinct slaty tinge. I have previously referred to the Sligo 

 specimens as being very strongly coloured, and Treitschke in his 

 diagnosis refers to the tint as of a " leaden blue." He writes : " Cara- 

 drina alis anticis ca3ruleo plumbeis, maculis duabus dilutioribus, 

 orbiculari solito rnajore obliqua ; posticis albidis fusco adspersis " 

 (' Die Schmet. von Europa,' vol. v., pt. 2, p. 258). 



ft. var. philopalis, Grasl. This is a small pale variety of the male 

 which is described by Graslin as follows : " Similis forma Stilbia 

 ataynicolce, sed minor. Alis anticis cineraceis, ad basim rufulis ; ad 

 extremum tribus lineis nigris ; duabus lineis, transversis nigris, in 

 medio extrinseciis denticulatis ; maculis solitis magnis, similibus 

 staynicola}. Posticis subcineraceis " (' Ann. Ent. Soc. France,' 1852, 

 p. 413). Of the figure illustrating this description I wrote : " Very 

 pale and small ; the reniform whitish ; the elbowed and subterminal 

 lines whitish ; the basal line edged with darker ; the claviform pale 

 almost whitish " (I.e. PI. 8, fig. 3). The type of this variety came 

 from Marseilles. Staudinger's diagnosis of the variety is as follows : 

 " Minor, pallidior, distinctius signata " (' Catalog,' p. 110). 



VII. Sub-class : LIMBAT^B, Gn. 

 1. Family : Catephidce, Gn. 



This sub-class is divided by Guenee into five families, of which 

 we have representatives in Britain of only two, viz., the Catephidw and 

 Catocalidce, and of these, the number of species amounts to only one 

 in the former and four in the latter. The species are very character- 

 istic and the underwings of some of the Catocalidce very beautiful, 

 their bright colours, however, are hidden in repose, by the grey and 

 brown tints of the upper wings, which respond sometimes most per- 

 fectly to the environment of the particular species. Of the Catephidte, 

 Guenee writes : " The imagines have all a rather pronounced family 

 appearance, but still the species are very variable inter se. The 

 abdomen is sometimes simply smooth as in the genus Cocytodes and 

 certain species in Catephia, sometimes strongly crested as in other 

 species of the latter genus and in Anophia, and lastly, some are pro- 

 vided with a single very small and very inconspicuous crest as in 

 Stictophera. Their inferior wings are not less variable. They never 



