156 



doubt that if some of our members will devote their attention 

 to rearing this species from South English larvae on as large 

 a scale as it has been reared from Scotch, they will find that 

 they have not wasted their time, and will no doubt throw 

 fresh light upon what should be, but what probably are not, 

 the best known forms occurring in this country. 



In conclusion I append the following note : — 



Hubner's figure of comes, which stands as our type, is a 

 lightish reddish-brown insect, with the stigmata and sub- 

 marginal line distinctly darker ; many of the lighter of the 

 Forres specimens agree very closely with it. 



In addition to this we have three named forms : Treitschke's 

 ddsequa, paler and unicolorous, a description that applied 

 well to many of the palest of the Forres insects. Prosequa of 

 the same author, which is described as darker and distinctly 

 variegated, and is generally considered to be a reddish 

 mottled form. I am not able to satisfy myself that any of 

 the Forres specimens that I have seen agree very well with 

 this description, which would appear to imply something 

 between Hubner's conies and the var. curtisii of Newman, 

 but more mottled, and of which representatives will be found 

 among the Aberdeen and Hebrides specimens. And then 

 there is the before mentioned curtisii of Newman, the chief 

 characters of which are the deep red (claret coloured) costal 

 portion and darker, sometimes almost black, inner margin 

 of the primaries, with the stigmata outlined in yellow, 

 and the deep border of the secondaries joining the central 

 lunule and the suffusion of their central area with black 

 scales. 



In addition to these recognized aberrations of this species, 

 Hubner figures an insect under the name of consequa, which 

 is generally considered to be a synonym of Hufnagel's orbona 

 {=subsequa, Hb.). It is a slate-coloured insect with the 

 stigmata slightly darker than the ground, and the transverse 

 lines of the median area light, particularly on the costa, the 

 submarginal line complete and similar in colour to the 

 stigmata, and compares well with the slatey form from Forres, 

 and, so far as comparison of a figure with specimens can be 

 taken as a guide to identity, certainly appears to represent a 

 form of this species rather than of orbona, Hufn. This form 

 is certainly not uncommon among the Forres series ; not only 

 have I found it in each of the sets that I have had from that 

 district, but Mr. J. A. Clark bred it from ova in 1888, and 

 has figured it in the plate of comes varieties published in the 

 Entomologist with his notes on the species {Entom. xxii. 145). 



