IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 101 



time ago: " Coenobia rw/a,.Haw. = despecta, Treit., Hb.-Geyer. Tn 

 Stainton's ' Manual ' and the Doubleday List ', this species is known as 

 despecta. In Newman's ' British Moths,' and Staudinger's ' Catalog ' 

 it is called rufa. Mr. South in ' The Entomologist List/ has followed 

 the latter ; whilst Guene'e in his ' Noctuelites,' uses despecta, giving 

 Haworth's rufa as a synonym with doubt. Mr. Kobson, in the list he 

 has published in the * Young Naturalist,' appears to have followed 

 GueneVs synonymy. The description of Haworth's rufa (' Lepidoptera 

 Britannica,' p. 260) is as follows : * Alis oblongis ciliisque runs uni- 

 coloribus ; posticis ciliisquepallidis striga medio macularum obscurarum.' 

 I consider this a good description of the insect we get. Haworth then 

 goes on : * caput inter antennas album.' I have a very long series, 

 and this statement can readily be verified if one turns the drawer 

 round with the heads of the insects towards one, and looks down the 

 series from top to bottom. The head is ' between the antennae ' 

 decidedly ' white.' Haworth then continues : ' Lingua et palpi 

 Noctuarum, potius quam Bombycum,' of which I suppose its position 

 in our classification is a sufficient proof. Comparing it with lutescens, 

 a variety of Acosmetia caliginosa, Haworth goes on to say : ' Corpus 

 paulo gracilius quam in ultimo (lutescens} etalse magis oblongse.' Both 

 lutescens and rufa are slender-bodied NOCTILEJ, and were formerly by 

 our older British authors, classified together in the genus Acosmetia. 



There is no doubt, I think, that the synonymy should stand as : 

 rufa, Haw. 1803, Newm., Stdgr. 

 despecta, Tr., Hb.-Gey., Sta., Guenee." 

 (' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' vol. xxv., pp. 55-56). 



Senta, St., maritima, Tausch. 



Vol. i., p. 48. Senta maritima. The original description of this 

 species is as follows : " Noctua laevis alis incumbentibus, anticis 

 cinerascentibus, postice serie strigularum, obsolete in quarum lunulis- 

 que marginalibus, albo in quoque variis " (' Memoires de la Soc. Imp. 

 des Nat. de Moscou,' 1806, p. 178). 



Vol. i., p. 49. Senta maritima var. bipunctata, Haw. Haworth's 

 original description of this variety, which he classified as a TORTRIX, is 

 as follows : " Tortrix bipunctata ? (The Wainscot Tortrix) alis canes- 

 centibus punctis duobus, strigaque humerali atris. Statura fere 

 T. herackana, Linn." (' Trans. Ent. Soc. London,' 1812, p. 337). 



Nonagria, Och., neurica f Hb. 



Vol. i., p. 50. Nonagria neurica var. dissoluta, Tr. Treitschke was 

 one of the first to unite typical neurica with the dark var. dissoluta as 

 Hiibner had originally done. Hiibner called the pale form neurica in 

 his fig. 381, he also considered the dark form the same species, as he 

 named his figures of that form (figs. 659-660) also neurica. Consider- 

 able discussion appears to have occurred as to their identity or other- 

 wise, and Treitschke then wrote : " Ochsenheimer has mentioned and 

 referred to Hiibner's neurica, and understood by it, the var. of a rushy 

 colour without markings on the underside, of which there are a few 

 examples under this name in Mazzola's collection, and which came from 

 the Rhine district. Later, we received from the same place a much 

 darker moth, marked on the underside, under the name of N. dissoluta. 



