MALAC0S0MA NEUSTRIA. 549 



(2) Deep rust red or red-brown, the forewings with the two transverse strigte 

 united = ab. rufa-confluens, n. ab. 



(3) Deep rust-red or red-brown, the forewings with the space between the two 

 strigas forming a median band = ab. rufa-virgata, n. ab. 



(4) Deep rust-red or red-brown, the forewings with the median band broken 

 centrally = ab. rufa-fracta, n. ab. 



(5) Deep rust-red or red-brown, the forewings with the lines and markings 

 obsolete = ab. rufa-unicolor, n. ab. 



It may be here observed that the transverse strigae are, in reality, 

 double, an inner darker line with an outer paler edge. In the pale 

 specimens the dark line is conspicuous, in the dark specimens the pale 

 border. Although the specimens produced from a single batch of eggs 

 may differ considerably from each other, yet, as a general rule, the 

 majority of the individuals of a brood are very similar to each other. 

 Dollman observes that a brood of larva3 obtained at Angmering, on 

 May 23rd, 1896, produced imagines from June 27th onwards, that 

 varied from yellow-ochreous to chocolate, with simple lines crossing 

 the wings or with a band between the same. Hills notes that the 

 batches from Folkestone Warren appear to have a preponderance of 

 reddish-ochreous forms, whilst large broods that we have bred from 

 Farnboro' (Kent), have been entirely fawn-coloured. The very darkest 

 rust-red examples Ave have seen have come from Milford Haven and 

 Clevedon, others almost equally dark having been taken in Wicken 

 Fen with pale yellow-ochreous forms. Barrett says that the darker 

 examples are more common northward and in the eastern counties. 

 Pearson notes that at Lincoln the specimens varied from light ochreous 

 to dark ochreous-brown, that they were of a brick-red tint at Chilwell, 

 whilst at Wannock they were all light ochreous in colour. Raynor 

 observes that those from Toft are dark rufous in colour, whilst from 

 Beeston he bred a small pale form. Grover notes the imagines as 

 variable at Guildford, where, however, brown males are scarce, whilst 

 Riding records that those bred from larva? obtained at New Quay are 

 mostly red-brown, only a few being yellowish-brown, Bouskell, too, 

 notes a dark form without bands in both sexes at Quorn, and our 

 general conclusions, based on a number of similar records, lead us to 

 suppose that whilst particular districts produce a majority of a special 

 form, the greater number of our darkest English specimens come from 

 the more western localities. We have, in our collection, an absolutely 

 white example (ab. alba, n. ab.) which was in the " Coverdale collec- 

 tion," without data, when we purchased the latter, and of which, 

 therefore, we have no further information or knowledge. Outside 

 England the same uncertainty prevails. Luff states that of three 

 examples bred from Herm, one was yellow and two brown, Agassi z 

 says that the form at Aix-les-Bains is deep brown, at Bourg d'Oisans 

 we found the prevailing tint to be yellow. Borkhausen observes 

 that aberrations are not infrequent in Germany, and that one speci- 

 men is rarely quite like another, some aberrations have the ground colour 

 red-brown as in male Pachy/fastria trifolii, with the transverse lines pale 

 yellow ; he further adds that he has an example with one of the 

 transverse lines partly absent, whilst Esper figures one with only one 

 line. Zetterstedt says that in Lapland one finds entirely pale specimens 

 with two fuscous striga:, as well as dark unicolorous reddish-ochreous 

 examples. Caradja observes that both brown and yellow forms occur 

 in Roumania and the surrounding countries, whilst Oberthur remarks 



