﻿VARIETIES OP NOCTURE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 13 



margin ; the median nervures whitish and branching under the 

 reniform, and with either white or ochreous reniform stigmata, 

 = var. intermedia ; — the other more unicolorous, with the trans- 

 verse markings comparatively obsolete, the reniform either white 

 (= var. albipuncta) or ochreous (= the type). We get nothing 

 in Britain so extreme as Hubner's fibrosa ; and Guenee, in the 

 1 Noctuelles,' vol. v., p. 210, makes the same remark about the 

 French specimens. He also adds that " specimens are found 

 intermediate between fibrosa, Hb., and the unicolorous type." 

 Hubner's type may be described as, — " The anterior wings dark 

 purplish brown, with blackish transverse lines; reniform yellowish. 

 Hind wings purplish grey, with a darker margin." Mr. Dobree 

 writes of the Canadian type: — " Leucostigma, so far as my 

 specimens permit me to judge, is rather of a bistre- than an 

 umber-brown, and mottled rather than unicolorous " (in litt). Of 

 the type, Dr. Staudinger writes: — "Al. ant. unicolor. nigricant. 

 flavo vel albo-maculatis." Hubner's type certainly is not " albo- 

 maculatis," but " fiavo-maculatis." Mr. Dobree writes : — " Both 

 forms occur on the Amur, but apparently fibrosa, Hb., the less 

 commonly (Graeser, ' Berl. Ent. Zeits.,' 1888). My specimen of 

 leucostigma from there agrees with Hubner's type. I have 

 specimens, also from Canada, of both varieties " (in litt.). The 

 principal varieties are : — 



a. var. albipuncta, mihi. — Unicolorous purplish brown (like the type), 

 umber-brown or blackish, with faint traces of transverse markings, but 

 with reniform white instead of ochreous. I have taken this form at 

 Greenwich, and have a long series of it, taken by the Rev. G. H. Raynor 

 in Wicken Fen ; and Mr. Percy Russ has captured a considerable number 

 of this variety, wth var. intermedia and the type, in the neighbourhood of 

 Sligo. Mr. Collins, of Warrington, takes this form a few miles from that 

 town, together with the type and var. intermedia. Mr. Reid writes: — 

 "This species is very scarce and local here (Pitcaple, Aberdeen); all 

 those I have taken are referable to vox. albipuncta. I have not seen 

 any other forms here" (in litt). 



/3 var. intermedia, mihi. — (1) inter •media-albo. — Anterior wings of a deep 

 umber-brown, with two pale (slightly ochreous) transverse basal lines, and 

 a paler orbicular; reniform white (sometimes reticulated), and standing on 

 a white geminated line (part of median nervure) ; a pale oblique transverse 

 streak from apex to inner margin, and a pale wavy line parallel to hind 

 margin. (2) intermedia- flavo. — The same as inter media-albo, but reniform 

 ochreous. I have var. intermedia from Wicken and Sligo ; Mr. Collins 

 also takes this variety in the neighbourhood of Warrington. The Irish 

 specimens are particularly bright, but not red, like Hubner's fibrosa. 



y. var. fibrosa, Hb. — Hubner's figure 385, fibrosa, may be described 

 as, " Anterior wings bright red, with dark greyish outer margin, and 

 darker red around the stigmata ; reniform very pale. Hind wings as in 

 leucostigma." This form may occnr in Britain, but I have nevor seen 

 specimens nor heard of any captures at all resembling it. Mr. Dobree 

 writes: — " The fibrosa from Canada are of a more generally sombre 

 colouring, but otherwise similarly marked to the European ones" (in litt.). 



