﻿146 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Cursoria is more variable in colour, and the aberration exhibited 

 may be tabulated as follows : — 



Grey. — a. Whitish grey — leaden grey. 



b. Ochreous grey — brownish grey. 



Brown. — c. Pale whitish brown — ochreous brown. 



d. Pale reddish brown — dark reddish brown. 



Except as regards certain specific characters, to be referred 

 to presently, many forms of tritici are almost identical in marking 

 with forms of cursoria. In the majority of these parallel instances 

 there is a colour difference, but it is not always so ; and although 

 it is quite possible that anyone may readily separate typical 

 cursoria from tritici by colour alone, it may not always be quite 

 such a facile undertaking to distinguish correctly between certain 

 forms of the two species, unless well acquainted with the specific 

 characters of each species. 



The pale transverse lines on the fore wings of tritici and 

 cursoria are usually bordered by dark lines ; but although these 

 are, on the disk of the wing, subject to considerable modification 

 in the direction of complete effacement, they are almost invariably 

 indicated on the costa as spots and dots. For the purpose of 

 comparison, however, it is not necessary for us to concern 

 ourselves with the discal markings, as only those on the costa 

 are of any real use. 



Keferring to the woodcut above, it will be observed that 

 tritici (fig. 1) has a dark bar on the costa between the basal and 

 inner lines of fore wing, whilst in cursoria (fig. 2) these lines are 

 each preceded and followed by dark dots, the space between the 

 lines being clear. The under surface of the fore wing also 

 affords good specific characters. Cursoria (2) is more or less 

 fuliginous from base to central transverse line, and pale beyond 

 to outer margin ; the discal spot is black, and very distinct. 

 Tritici is suffused with fuscous on the outer half of wing, and the 

 inner becomes pale towards base ; there is a black discal spot, 

 and from the outer edge of this a broad pale ray is projected 

 towards external margin of the wing. These are trustworthy 

 characters, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred tritici 

 may be distinguished from cursoria by reference to the upper 

 surface alone ; but if there should be any doubt about the matter, 

 examination of the under surface will solve the difficulty. 



As regards ornamentation, the aberration of tritici and 

 cursoi'ia, from St. Anne's, represents the entire variation of these 

 species, so far as I am acquainted with it. Specimens in my 

 collection, from other localities, are more striking perhaps, but 

 they are only extreme examples of one or other of the varietal 

 groups into which I have divided the Lancashire specimens. As 

 it may present the matter in an intelligible form, I have attempted 



