184 NOIES ON AGROTIS ASHWORTHII, 



X. — Notes on Affrotis Ashworthn. By Llewelyn S. Beady. 



The moth, which forms the subject of this paper must be put 

 down as one of the most interesting of its kind to those who 

 are interested in the study of Lepidoptera. Though there are 

 upwards of 6,000 species known to occur on the continent o£ 

 Europe — or rather in what Dr. Staudinger in his Catalogue calls 

 "the territory of the fauna of Europe," this including part of 

 Asia and Africa — only 2,000 of these are to be found within this 

 " half -starved corner of the universe," as the British Islands 

 have been called ; and thus it is a pleasure to find at least one 

 moth w^hich shows good enough taste to make our islands its 

 exclusive home, and such is the case with Agrotis Ashworthn, 

 the insect under notice. Even within these limits it has been 

 very fastidious in its choice of a resting place, and, so far as is 

 known, only occurs in two or three very restricted localities in 

 North Wales. Running in a northerly direction through Shrop- 

 shire, Denbighshire, and Flintshire to the sea is a range of 

 Carboniferous Limestone hills, and it is on and about the cliffs 

 which constitute certain parts of this range that Ashworthn 

 occurs, and also in one place on the Silurian, a much older 

 formation, viz., near Penmaenmawr, about five miles west of 

 Great Ormes Head. Wherever limestone occurs the Entomo- 

 logist is pretty certain to find plenty of good insects to claim his 

 attention, and this case is no exception to the rule, as besides 

 Ashworthn there are other rarities to be found in the district, 

 but none that has so great an attraction to Entomologists. 



The nearest allied species to A. Ashworthn is an insect which 

 occurs sparingly on the Continent in similar localities, Agrotis 

 candelarwn, and our insect, though now perfectly distinct, is 

 thought by some to have originally descended from this species. 

 In general appearance Ashworthn is altogether dissimilar to its 

 supposed ancestor, and is very true to the type, the specimens 

 from each locality varying scarcely at all inter se, and showing 

 no tendency to revert to the supposed original either in the 

 imago or larva. On tlie other hand it seems to be considerably 



