NOCTUID,^. PLUSIA. 101 



stigma is delicately margined with gold, and the anterior one has a golden 

 edge placed on its inner side alone, forming a golden lunule immediately above 

 the V mark ; cilia rosy-brown, with darker shades : posterior wings reddish- 

 ash, with an oblique striga, the nervures and hinder margin fuscous ; cilia as 

 in the anterior wings : abdomen cinereous, with the dorsal tufts and sides 

 tinged with rose-colour. 



This beautiful species varies much : in some of my specimens the golden marks 

 on the anterior wings are united, and form the Greek y, as in PI. Gamma: 

 but in all the varieties the undulated metallic strigae exist. 



Caterpillar green, spotted with white : it feeds on the Nettle, Archangel, Bur- 

 dock, &c. : — the imago appears in the beginning of July, and is found in 

 woody situations. 



Not very common ; found occasionally at Coombe and Darenth 

 woods, most frequently at the latter place : it also occurs in various 

 parts of the country, as Devonshire, the New Forest, &c. " Netley." 

 — Rev. F. W. Hope. " York and Newcastle." — W. C. Hewitson, 

 Esq. " Allesley and Coleshili;'— i2^y. W. T. Bree. 



Sp. 2. percontationis. AUs ayiticis hrunnco, ferritgineoquevariis lituTU, angulatd 



punctoque contiguo aureis. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. G— 8 iin.) 

 PI. percontationis. Ochsenheimer. — Steph. Caial. part ii. p. 105. No. 6376. 



—Ph. No. Iota. Don. vii. pi. 256. f, 1. ? 



Head, thorax, and abdomen, as in the last, but of a paler tinge : anterior wings 

 elegantly varied with brown and ferruginous, the ordinary striga; slightly 

 flexuous, and totally destitute of metallic ornament, the space between the 

 second and third from the discoidal nervure to the inner margin of a deep 

 fuscous purple, and bearing an angulated mark resembling the Greek v or y, 

 and a rounded spot generally acute anteriorly, of a bright gold colour: stig- 

 mata indistinct, the posterior slightly margined with dusky : posterior wings 

 as in PI. Iota. 



This varies considerably in colour, and slightly in tlie form of its markings: 

 one specimen in my collection is of a pale rich reddish-purple, with darker 

 shades, having the angulated golden litura very small, and the adjoining spot 

 perfectly round and somewhat distant; while others are of a deep purpUsh- 

 brown hue, with the golden marks of a large size, and nearly united. 



I am fully persuaded that this insect is perfectly distinct from the preceding, 

 notwithstanding the opinion of Treitschke and others to the contrary. In the 

 first place, it is usually of a larger size, and the form and position of the ordi- 

 nary strigse, as well as their sinuations, the shape of the metallic characters on 

 the disc, and the absence of the latter on the strigae and margins of the stig- 

 mata—exclusively of the great diversity in the colour of the two insects — are 

 important distinctions; and secondly, the period of appearance is different; 



