IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 129 



have had a sufficient number of specimens, for his marks of distinction 

 are not at all to be relied on. The shape of the metallic mark is not 

 a criterion, a better one exists in the fringes, which in jota are uni- 

 colorous, and in pulchrina dark-spotted, although in many specimens 

 of the latter these spots are scarcely discernible. They vary according 

 to my experience, much less than their somewhat larger and more 

 robust relative, in which the metallic mark changes from the spots, 

 being almost suffused on the one hand, and complete disappearance on 

 the other. All pulchrina which I saw had it distinctly, and in the 

 ordinary shape, that is, the v-shape and the spot separated ; but I do 

 not doubt that specimens may occur where both are united, and form 

 a 7 as in percontationis. The light purplish (tinted with blue) colora- 

 tion, as also the more glossy fore wings, and the stronger angulated 

 lines (almost always shining silvery in the basal area), give our 

 European pulchrina quite a different appearance from jota, which is 

 easily discernible when both species are before you. But they are still 

 so similar that it is easily understood that there should be doubts as to 

 their specific difference. In Ourland, and probably in the Batish 

 countries such doubt will not exist, as all their specimens resemble 

 those which I saw in 1875, and shortly described under the names of var. 

 baltica and var. gammoides in the ' Entom. Zeitung.' The considerably 

 larger Batish jota is of a browner coloration, which has no resemblance 

 to the grey gamma-like of their relative. Hiibner's jota (fig. 288) 

 belongs without doubt to pulchrina, but the coloration of violet and 

 reddish is made to contrast too strongly, at least in Hiibner's work in 

 the Stettin library " (< Stettiner entomologische Zeitung,' vol. xliv., pp 

 354-356). 



Plusia, Och., pulchrina, Haw. 



Vol. iv., p. 29. Plusia pulchrina var. monogramma, Alph. In the 

 < Zoological Kecord ' for 1887 (Insecta), p. 250, we find : " P. pulchrina 

 var. monogramma, Alph., ' Stett. ent. Zeit.,' xlviii., p. 171." The 

 original description is as follows : " Varietas obscurior signis mediis 

 aureo-argenteis anticarum in signum literam grsecum y simulantum 

 conjunctis " (' Stettiner entomologische Zeitung,' vol. xlviii., p. 171). 

 My v&r.juncta is not " obscurior," but is of the same tint as the normal 

 British forms, otherwise the two varieties agree. 



Amphipyra, Och., pyramidea, Linn. 



Vol. iv., p. 37. Amphipyra pyramidea var. magna, Walk. The 

 following is Walker's description of magna, which is now generally 

 considered as a form of the above species: " $ . Fusca, nigro con- 

 spersa ; alse anticse fuscescente-cinerese, fascia media lata dentata 

 lineaque exterior nigricantibus linea ante media nigra undulata duplicata, 

 orbiculari e annulo cinereo elliptico, reniformi subobsoleta, spatio mar- 

 ginali fusco strigas nigras lineamque cineream dentatam includente ; 

 postica cupreo-rufa." " ? . Brown, speckled with black cinereous- 

 brown beneath. Palpi nearly erect, rising a little higher than the 

 vertex ; third joint lanceolate, less than one-half the length of the 

 second. Abdomen cinereous-brown, extending much beyond the hind 

 "- ; ng. The fore wings brownish-cinereous, with a broad, blackish 

 mtral band, which is dentate along its outer side, and is parallel to 



