8 HAUSTELLATA. — LEPIDOPTERA. 



is small, orbicular, and generally luteous or rufous ; the posterior is large, ear- 

 shapedj usually of a whitish-gold, but occasionally rufous or luteous, and is in 

 general slightly strigulated with brown : posterior wings dusky, with rufescent 

 cilia. 

 I cannot perceive any characters indicative of specific difference between this 

 insect and the Noctua erythrostigma of Haworth ; which appears to me to be 

 simply a variety differing from the type, as some of the varieties of Glsea 

 satellitia differ from their type. I possess various intermediate gradations, 

 and have seen others, but from the infrequency of the insect in Britain, few 

 cabinets contain a sufficient number of specimens to decide the question 

 satisfactorily. Whether it be really synonymous with Ph. No. nictitans of 

 Linne, I am not positive, but the best continental writers conceive that it is 

 identical. 



Rare ; but taken occasionally on the heaths near Birch- wood to- 

 wards the end of July or beginning of August ; also near Margate, 

 and in Devonshire, and the New Forest. " Isle of Arran." — Dr, 

 Leach. 



Sp. 3. secalina. Alis anticis griseo juscoque variis, strigis duabus pallidiorib-us, 

 stigmatibus albicantibus. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 4 — 6 lin.) 



No. secahna. Hiibner. — ^Ap. secaUna. Steph. Catal. part ii.p. 85. No. 6233. 



Head and thorax griseous, with fuscous clouds and atoms: anterior wings 

 griseous, varied with fuscous, with a few darker clouds of the same, with an 

 abbreviated darker fascia in the middle, in which the stigmata are placed, the 

 anterior of which is placed obliquely, and slightly margined with whitish; the 

 posterior fuscous, edged with white : between the fascia and the posterior 

 margin is a dusky angular costal patch, in which are three or four white costal 

 dots : on the hinder margin is an undulated pale striga : posterior wings fus- 

 cous, with rufescent cilia. 



As in its congeners, this species varies much ; in some examples the wings are 

 paler and less rufescent, with the stigmata larger and whiter; in others there 

 is a black hook or streak, as in Ap. I-niger. 



Treitschke unites this and the three following species, with the exception of un- 

 animis, under the name Ap. didyma ; but in my opinion erroneously, for it is 

 impossible for a cognate species to be more distinct than the present is from its 

 congeners : with respect to the two succeeding insects, I am inclined to his 

 views, but even with them their characters appear sufficient for specific 

 distinction. 



Found, though very rarely, in the neighbourhood of London, at 

 the end of July ; I possess a pair from Birch-wood, and it has been 

 found in Battersea-fields. 



Sp. 4. didyma. Alis nigris subnehulosis stigmate reniformi niveo. (Exp. alar. 



1 unc. 3 — 4 lin.) 

 No. didyma. Borkhauscn.—A.\j. didyma. Steph. Catal part ii. p. 85. No. 6232. 



