VARIATION 
269 
Zetterstedt writes : — “ Similar to N. brunnea^ Fab. or iF. fragarice^ Bork., 
but certainly distinct, it is so much smaller, etc.” {Insecta Lapponica^ 
941). At the same time, ordinary festiva are taken side by side with it 
in Norway, but these are considered perfectly distinct by Scandinavian 
lepidopterists ; vide Entom. Tidsknft^ 1885, p. 53. Staudinger writes 
of conflua : — “ Perhaps an Alpine and northern variety of festiva or a 
Darwinian species,” and gives as localities “ Northern Europe, Silesian 
Mountains, the Alps, Iceland and Labrador” {Catalogs p. 83). Of 
these, the specimens from the Silesian Mountains and the Alps are 
probably only conflua-\ikQ vars. of festiva^ but this is not necessarily so. 
My friend, Mr. Reid, I know, believes it possible that the higher 
mountainous districts in Perth and North Scotland might produce the 
real Shetlandic form, but up to the present time, I have not seen any 
from the Scotch mainland. With regard to these Scotch festiva^ which 
we have been accustomed to call conflua^ Mr. A. Horne of Aberdeen 
writes : — “ I am now convinced that this variety does not occur in 
Aberdeenshire, nor, in fact, in any of the northern counties of Scotland. 
I have taken N. festiva in, I think, all the counties from Kincardineshire 
up to and including Orkney, but they do not appear to be smaller or 
paler at any one place than another. At Forres, the majority are of a 
red colour. In Professor Trail’s List of the Lepidoptera of the Dee 
(x\berdeenshire) is found the following : — '' N, festiva^ abundant, rather 
local.’ ‘ W. conflua^ abundant.’ I think this is the principal cause of 
Aberdeen collectors sending away their specimens as N conflua ” {in 
litt.) ; whilst Mr. Reid writes : — “ A^. festiva has been sent out as N. 
conflua by many Aberdeen collectors for ‘exchange’ purposes, and the 
fact that festiva never figured in the ‘ Exchange List ’ speaks for itself, 
besides I have been told by a collector, that ‘ if we call them festiva^ 
we should never get rid of them.’ Professor Trail’s list, however, has 
much to answer for in perpetuating the blunder. Although some 
collectors have worked a great part of the northern counties of Scotland, 
I do not think the high mountains have ever been worked for conflua. 
I have no doubt, the narrow-winged, unicolorous form occurs freely in 
such localities. Mr. Tait of Inverurie, has a few which he captured in 
Aberdeenshire. I have taken them myself on some of our high moors, 
and I have seen others that have been captured high on our hills. I 
cannot say whether the variety has been captured in the mountains of 
Perthshire ” {in litt.). Mr. Maddison writes : — “ My specimens of N. 
conflua from Lapland, appear to differ slightly from my Morayshire and 
other Scotch specimens, in their somewhat paler colour and narrower fore 
wings, but I cannot say that the difference appears to be much marked ” 
{in litt.) ; whilst Mr. Sydney Webb says : — “ If we can claim conflua at 
all, it seems to me that it must be through the Shetland specimens and 
not through the Aberdeenshire or Perthshire ones. Stress is particularly 
laid, on the Continent, on the narrow fore wing, and certainly the 
Shetland specimens possess this in a marked degree” (/;z litt.). The 
true festiva as well as conflua occurs in the Shetland Isles. 
We may now consider them separately, (i) JLoctua, ~L\rm., festiva, 
Hb. Under this name I include all our British forms except the 
conflua from the Shetland Isles. The variation in ground colour 
extends from a pale whitish-grey to a deep red, and in markings from 
exceedingly well-developed blarV quadrate marks between the stigmata 
