TN THE BRITISn ISLANDS. 59 



anomalis fuscis, luteo marginatis cum puncto nigro " (' Systema 

 NaturaV xth., p. 510). Treitschke writes: "The female is usually 

 larger than the male and generally has the fore wings browner and 

 the hind wings dusted more with black " (' Die Schmet. von Europa,' 

 vol. v., p. 392). 



a. var. dentata, Led. Lederer's dentata is described by Staudinger 

 simply as : " Multo pallidior major " ( Catalog,' p. 135). 



3. Family : PoaphiUdce, Gn. 



This family is particularly abundant in North America, but with 

 very few European species and only one of these British Phytometra 

 (Prothymia) viridaria. Guenee writes: "In the perfect state the 

 PoaphiUdce have the same habits as the Euclididce, to which they are 

 otherwise related in their organisation, that is to say they fly by day 

 amongst low plants, on which they frequently rest. The species 

 appear to be very numerous and near to each other, and judging from 

 the number which are sent to us from North America, they are not 

 rare in the clearings of the forests. It is only most astonishing 

 that almost all are undescribed, and that authors, who have figured 

 so great a number of species from Guiana (America), a country where 

 they should probably be found, have not given us a single species " 

 (' Noctuelles,' vol. vii., p. 295). 



Prothymia, Hb., viridaria, Cl. 



This species exhibits a considerable amount of variation, some of 

 the specimens being of an uniform dull olive-grey, others of a bright 

 green banded with purple. This variation is not sexual, although the 

 males are more frequently of the former, and the females of the 

 latter coloration. Other specimens again have the normally green 

 parts, brown. There are other minor variations, but the forms just 

 mentioned are those principally taken by the species in Britain. 



The following is the description I made of Clerck's type : " The 

 anterior wings with the basal area green ; two parallel red bands in 

 the reniform area pass from the costa to the inner margin ; the ex- 

 treme outer marginal area beyond the subterminal, blackish. Hind 

 wings green with three red lines " (' Icones,' pi. 9, fig. 12). 



Hiibner's cenea (fig. 350) has the fore wings olive-grey, rather 

 than green, otherwise the red bands &c. are quite typical. Treitschke 

 writes of this species : " JEnea is of the size of latnmcttla. The 

 ground colour of the whole body and the fore wings is generally a 

 bright metallic green, but in some specimens the colour is brownish- 

 grey with no metallic lustre, like Hiibner's fig. 634. Without reason 

 this var. has for some time been called N. cincta. The latter coloured 

 specimens are most frequently females, which are also larger than the 

 males. The antennae are thread-like and rust-brown, legs grey with 

 black dots on the joints. The palpi are, in comparison with the head, 

 large, and turned upwards. The fore wings have a purple line 

 alongside the costa on an olive-greenish ground merging into brown- 

 grey. In the middle stands a pale spot, and immediately behind it a 

 purple transverse band which is lost towards the outer margin in the 

 ground colour. On the costa, behind the fringes, is seen behind the 

 light green zigzag line a second red band, broader than the first, in 



