IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 117 



obscura " (Cockerell, in Hit., 31, 3, '92). Grote also writes to me that 

 dandestina is distinct. 



Agrotis, Och., fennica, Tausch. 



Vol. ii., pp. 84-85. Agrotis fennica. Mr. Cockerell writes : " As 

 to great damage done by this species at Ottawa, in May, 1884, vide 

 Fletcher < Canadian Entomologist,' 1884, p. 214" (m. litt.). 



Agrotis, Och., hyperborea, Zett. 



Vol. ii., p. 85. Agrotis hyperborea. It is well to have the exact 

 citation of opinion by means of which well-known lepidopterists have 

 united very distinct looking forms into one species. For this purpose, 

 I quote the following note of Dr. Staudinger, who wrote in August, 

 1876 : " When I was in London last May, Mr. McLachlan had the 

 kindness to show me the type of P. alpina, taken by Mr. Douglas in 

 1839, on Cairn Gowr in Perthshire, at an elevation of 3,000 feet. The 

 only mention of it that I have seen is in Stainton's ' Manual of British 

 Butterflies and Moths,' vol. i., p. 241. The species is described in 

 Westwood and Humphrey's * British Moths ' (1843 or 1845) and I shall 

 be glad to have the exact citation, as Stainton unfortunately gives no 

 author's names. I recognised at first sight that P. alpina was the same 

 species as the Agrotis hyperborea of my large 'Catalog' ('1871, No. 

 1098). Zetterstedt described it in his 'Insecta Lapponica,' in 1840 

 (p. 938), as Hadena hyyerborea. The type of P. alpina is possibly a 

 little darker than specimens from Lapland, but it is old, and even the 

 Lapland individuals show aberrations. In 1860, 1 took this insect (in 

 company with my friend Dr. Wocke) not unfrequently in Finmark 

 (Norwegian Lapland), in July, and we found pupae and also larvas at 

 the end of May, in moss. I detailed the account in the ' Stettiner en- 

 tomologische Zeitung,' 1861, p. 361. Since then, the species has been 

 found on the Dovref jeld in the centre of Norway, on the Kiesengebirge 

 (Silesia), and on the Alps of Switzerland and Tyrol. On the Alps of 

 Carinthia it has a reddish (instead of bluish) coloration, and this form 

 was described by Hering as carnica, and by Herrich-Schaffer as glacialis. 

 This is certainly only a local form of hyperborea. I saw, in the 

 Museum at Pesth, a specimen taken by the younger Frivaldszky in the 

 Carpathian Mountains, which is intermediate between the two forms. 

 The reddish Agrotis subrosea, Steph., becomes blue (var. subccerulea, 

 Stdgr.) in the North of Eussia. The Scotch Pachnobia alpina must 

 take the older name of hyperborea, Zett. The species has a wide dis- 

 tribution on the Continent " ( Entomologist's Monthly Magazine.' vol. 

 xiii., p. 90). The original description of alpina has been given ante, 

 vol. ii., pp. 87-88. 



Vol. ii., p. 86, line 16. for " Mr. Janos of Frivaldisky " read 

 " M. Frivaldszky the younger." 



Noctua, L., baia, Fab. 



Vol. ii., p. 105. Noctua baia var. bajula, Stgr. This variety was 

 described by Dr. Staudinger from Central Asiatic specimens which he 

 received in considerable numbers from Lepsa. His original note on 

 this form runs as follows : " This NOCTUA has been sent in large 

 quantities (chiefly females) from Lepsa, which had probably been 

 taken at sugar in the autumn. These specimens differ from baia, but 

 I take them to be the var. bajula. The latter is smaller on the average, 



