33 
occasionally presents any striking character, is the median shade, which 
often stands out conspicuously dark on a pale ground colour. In size 
there is great variation, and our exposed localities, in the north of 
England and Scotland, produce the small specimens which Newman 
erroneously called and figured as conflua in his British Moths , p. 349. 
Hiibner’s type is a very rare form, and I am indebted to Mr. Wylie, of 
Perth, for perhaps the best specimen I have ever seen of it It has the 
basal area to the central shade of a clear bluish or slaty colour, the outer 
area being of a bright red. Of this type Guenee writes :—-“If we only 
referred to the phrase in the Wien.-Verz ., ‘dunkelrothe und perlfarbige,’ 
and to the position of these species among those Noctu^ ‘ pupurfarbig,’ 
with delphinii and purpurina , we should be left in great doubt, but the 
figure of Hiibner, which was perhaps even made from the Theresien 
collection itself, which is in fact half purple and half pearly grey, and 
which represents well, however, our festiva , will serve to explain the 
difficulty” (. Noctuelles , vol. v., p. 331). 
(2) Noctua , Linn., conflua , Tr.—The narrow and more pointed fore¬ 
wings of the Shetland specimens known by the above name, as well as 
the difference in tint from any form of festiva , at once single this out 
as distinct from the latter species. The line of demarcation between 
this and festiva is as clearly definable as that between many other 
species generally recognised as distinct. Treitschke’s description of 
the type is as follows :— u Apamea conflua. A. al^s anticis hepaticis, 
maculis ordinariis pallidioribus, strigis obsoletis confluentibus.” 
“ Conflua is not much larger than Ap. strigilis. The fore wings are 
liver-coloured, marbled more or less with yellowish- or reddish-brown. 
It is more ochreous on the outer margin and around the paler 
stigmata. Of the basal transverse line only a blackish dot is visible; 
the orbicular is very large and pale, whilst in the position of the end of 
the claviform is a small black spot. The reniform is large, whilst, 
between the stigmata and beyond the orbicular, are dark quadrate 
and triangular marks. Before the paler fringe is a pale wavy trans¬ 
verse line, followed by a dark brown band. The hind wings have a 
pale ochreous ground colour, with a darker lunule and pale yellowish 
fringe” (.Die Schmet . etc., vol. v., Pt, 1, p. 405). Most of the speci¬ 
mens of conflua have a deep brownish coloration, some being more 
ochreous, and others red, the latter tint often being distinctly ob¬ 
servable in the central area. It is rare that the ground colour is 
entirely red, but I have such specimens in my series. Compared with 
the polymorphic festiva , this is a constant species, but still it varies 
considerably within narrow limits. The red-brown form, as described 
above, is the type, the commoner grey-brown form is the borealis of 
Zetterstedt, whilst there is another most striking form, greyish-brown 
in colour as in borealis , but without the dark quadrate spot. I 
am doubtful whether Zetterstedt’s diducta , which he compares 
with Cerastis rubiginea , is a var. of conflua , but, as it is treated as 
such by recent Scandinavian authors, I would include Zetterstedt’s 
description. There is some doubt whether Guenee, like Newman, 
simply looked upon small festiva as conflua , for he writes :—“ It is 
always very rare. I believe that it is found in the environs of 
Paris, for in M. Boisduval’s collection there is a specimen mixed 
with his festiva , and which he, no doubt, reared with them ” (. Noctuelles , 
vol. v., p. 332). Boisduval’s fig. 3 (leones , Plate 83) is a real Icelandic- 
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