8 THE ENTOMOLOGISTS S EECOKD. 



reniform, but it is scarcely violet, rather steel-grey." This slightly l 

 violet-tinged form Mr. Tutt {op. cit.) called ab. intermedia. Between 

 the two geographical races existent in Britain and mentioned by Tutt, 

 viz., (1) the race with the much clearer white markings from Portland, 

 (2) the much more ochreous form from Torquay, and which Mr. Tutt 

 named respectively var. pallida and var. suffusa, there is considerable 

 difference, a difference exactly paralleled in Ejmnda lichenea (in its 

 typical form, and var. viridicincta) from the same districts, and dealt 

 with at length {Brit. Noct., etc., iii., pp. 52-53). Not only are these 

 two races absolutely distinct but within the limits of the Portland race, 

 var. pallida, Tutt, there is considerable aberrational difference, in one 

 direction to an excess of the white markings culminating in ab. 

 argentea, Tutt, in the opposite direction to a lessening of the white 

 markings culminating in ab. obsoleta, Tutt. This may represent a 

 *'very small" amount of variation, but I should like a definition of 

 what Mr. Stonell means by "very small." Of course, I know Tiger 

 moths and Gooseberry moths present a greater or more readily observed 

 range of variation. And all this was written 14^ years ago. 



As to the second point mentioned above, viz., that referring to 

 gothicina with obsolete f/otJiica-yn&vk. Without attempting to go 

 further than the work quoted above, I would call Mr. Stonell's 

 attention to the following paragraph, etc. {British Noctuae, ii., p. 150) 

 written nearly 14 years ago : " T. var. suff'itsa, niihi.- — This form has 

 the ground-colour entirely reddish, with the characteristic dark 

 ^ot/iica-mark Avell-developed. It is very rarely mottled and is 

 altogether a more unicolorous, as well as redder, variety. The reddish 

 subvariety, in which the tiothica-m.a.vk is fainter and reddish in colour, 

 has been described as r/othicina by Herrich-Schaffer. His special 

 diagnosis is ' Inter stigmata ambo macula quadrata ferruginea.' He 

 then adds : * What is black in (/othica is rust-coloured in gothicina. I 

 have both sexes from Lapland. The species resembles f/othica very 

 much. The size, shape, and markings are the same as in that species, 

 the colouring, however, is very different. The ground-colour is rust 

 or reddish in the central area of the wing, with slaty-grey discoidals, 

 and similarly coloured shading on the costa, with pale transverse 

 lines. There is no trace of black in the fiothica-m.a.i'k. The outer 

 transverse, wavy, subterminal line and interrupted row of dots on it 

 are ochreous. The hind-wings and undersides are brown-grey as in 

 gothica' {Systeniatisches Bearbeitung, vi., p. 196, figs. 125-6). This 

 form, then, is not really an obsolete form as we are apt to consider it. 

 Herrich-Schaffer, accustomed to the dark Linnean type, appears to lay 

 stress, firstly, on the reddish ground-colour, secondly, on the rust- 

 coloured //of/aca-mark. The application of the name gothicina to our 

 pale Scotch specimens with a purely obsolete gothica mark, is, therefore, 

 entirely wrong, the name being applied by Herrich-Schaffer to a form 

 ■which appears to be generally distributed in Britain, and to be found 

 ■with the other endless aberrations of the species, wherever it is common. 

 I have specimens of var. suffma from Hereford, Darlington, Morpeth, 

 and Rannoch ; and var. gothicina, in its true sense, from the same 

 localities." 



This perfectly plain statement of what gothicina is, may surely 

 readily be referred to by all lepidopterists, in fact, one would suppose, 

 if there were any real interest in the variation of T. gothica, apart 



