50 VARIETIES OF NOCTU- 



darker lines. The body is dark ash-grey with white rings, and has, 

 on the foremost joints, raised crests. The chest and underside of the 

 body are snowy white, also the legs, which are ringed with grey on 

 the lowest joint, and covered strongly with down above. The 

 antennae are brown-grey with white projections, which are long in 

 the male and sharply pectinated. The fore wings are of a whitish- 

 grey ground colour which is more or less dusted with minute brown 

 and yellow dots. Through the surface run white transverse lines 

 bordered with brown ; close to the base is an interrupted line ; a little 

 further on a complete one, consisting of many scallops. Then follows 

 the middle area in which only the reniform is visible as a confused 

 darker mark, whilst below, towards the inner margin, stands a kind 

 of flame-shaped quadrangular mark which is sometimes light yellow, 

 but the colour nearer the base is lighter. Some distance from the 

 reniform is seen an elbowed, dentate, white line, but bordered with 

 yellow-brown ; then follows a whitish band, after which, behind a 

 faint scalloped brown-grey subterminal line, the ground colour 

 becomes bluish-grey. The fringes are long and scalloped, spotted 

 with white and grey and often mixed with yellow and surrounded by 

 interrupted lunular marks towards the inside " (' Die Schmet.' etc., 

 vol. v., pt. 3, pp. 330-331). The Linnaean description of the type is 

 as follows : " Noctua spirilinguis cristata alis deflexis cinereo nebu- 

 losis, inferioribus supra nigris fascia caarulescente " (' Systema Naturae/ 

 xth., p. 612). 



Catocala, Schrk., nupta, Linn. 



There is a very considerable difference in the shade of the ground 

 colour of the fore wings of this species. Some are pure grey without a 

 tinge of ochreous (the type), but these appear to be very rare, whilst in 

 others the grey is so strongly suffused with ochreous [var. obscurata, (?)] 

 that it appears to lose its grey character altogether. In some specimens, 

 the transverse lines and outlines to the stigmata are strikingly pale, 

 and are, in turn, edged with very dark brownish lines which throw up 

 the markings and lines most distinctly. The centre of the reniform 

 and a dark lunule in contact with the inner edge of the reniform are 

 usually the darkest parts of the wing. In a few of my specimens, 

 both the pale lines and dark margins are merged into the ground 

 colour, such specimens being particularly unicolorous. The hind 

 wings have two distinct shades of red, one being much brighter than 

 the other. I have also a specimen which came out of Mr. Coverdale's 

 collection, the fore wings of a clear pale grey, and the hind wings of 

 a pale yellowish almost white, a most perfectly pigmentless example, 

 although perfectly scaled. The shape and direction of the central 

 black band on the hind wings vary a little, and there is a tendency for 

 the long red scales at the base to cover the lower portion of this band. 

 The type is described by Linna3us as follows : " Phalcena Noctua 

 spirilinguis cristata, alis cinerascentibus ; inferioribus rubris : fasciis 

 nigris, abdomine cano subtus albo." " Simillima sponsce, sed abdomen 

 dilutius subtus album. Ala3 superiores supra cano fuscoque undulato- 

 nebulosse. Subtus nigrae fasciis 2 albis ; cilia marginalia cana : stria 

 nigra in medio cujusvis dentis. Inferiores supra dilute rubrse : fasciae 

 2 nigras flexuosae ; margo ciliaris niveus. Subtus concolores ; fasciae 



