456 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
nippe procellata, and the light variety of Gnophos obscuraria, &c. ? 
Why, on the white and light-coloured soils of the south of 
England, i.e. chalk and limestone. On the other hand, we find 
the dark variety of G. obscuraria, and various dark-coloured 
species, on black peaty soils.”’* A noctuid moth, Agrotis lucernea, 
not uncommon in Britain, when found on the chalk downs in the 
Isle of Wight has been thus described: ‘It rests in chinks on 
the ground, and is of a soft silky grey colour, and covered with 
such thick and long scales as to give it a furry appearance. 
Although abundant enough by night, it requires a long search to 
find a single specimen by day, so difficult is it to distinguish in 
its native haunts, the long pale silky hairs resembling exactly the 
rough surface of the chalk dusted with the darker atoms of the 
soil above.” This moth has also been caught by the same 
entomologist on the east coast of Scotland, and then thus 
differently described: ‘On black rocks, sometimes reeking with 
moisture, and which were as black as the rocks on which they 
rested.” Mr. Tutt, to whom we are indebted for these notes and 
observations, ascribes the colouration in each case as due to the 
action of natural selection. We may at least say in respect to 
other instances he has adduced that this explanation is not so 
apparent. Noctua glareosa “‘is of a pale dove-coloured grey, 
sometimes tinged with rosy,” and with three dark spots. ‘‘ The 
Sligo specimens are very white,—Scotch specimens more slaty ; 
the Shetland specimens are of a rich blackish brown colour.” 
Epunda lichenea ‘‘is a mottled greenish grey or greenish ochreous 
species, which is confined to a few coast districts. The Portland 
specimens are greenish white; the Teignmouth specimens dark 
greenish ochreous, mottled with red. The moths from these two 
localities have quite a different appearance, owing to the different 
kind of rocks on which they rest at these places.” Amphidasys 
betularia, a Geometrid moth, “as it rests on a trunk in our 
southern woods, is not at all conspicuous, and looks like a natural 
splash or scar, or a piece of lichen”; but near our large towns, 
where there are factories, and where vast quantities of soot are 
* «Hntomologist,’ vol. xxvi. p. 855. Mr. Wallace considers that the 
original colour of butterflies was a greyish or brownish neutral tint (‘ Dar- 
winism,’ p. 274); and the same opinion is held by Dr. Dixey in his study of 
the phylogeny of the Pierine (‘Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.,’ 1894, p. 290). 
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