The Lesser Yellow Underwing (Triphæna (Agrotis) comes = orbona).
This very variable species, of which the typical forms and two varieties are represented on Plate [115], is to be found, often abundantly, almost everywhere in the British Isles, except the Shetlands.
Apart from a form peculiar to Scotland, which will be separately referred to, the colour range of the fore wings is from pale ochreous-brown to a deep brown; in all shades there may be a tinge of reddish, or a suffusion of greyish. In Ireland and Scotland, and less frequently in England, a distinctly red form occurs. (Plate [115], Fig. 7.) Then there is variation in the markings, and more particularly in the reniform and orbicular marks; both stigmata are, perhaps, rarely absent, but they are frequently very faint, and of the orbicular there is often not a trace. On the other hand, both may be filled up with dark brown, or blackish, and very conspicuous. The cross lines, and more especially the shaded submarginal, are usually pretty much in evidence, but these are apt to disappear entirely. The yellow hind wings are occasionally smudged with blackish towards the base; the central crescents vary in size, and somewhat in shape, and although sometimes greatly reduced, they are only rarely quite missing; the black band before the outer margin is also subject to modification in width and the regularity of its edges.
Var. curtisii, Newman, was discovered in the Isle of Bute by Curtis in 1825, but until 1871, when Newman gave it the name it now bears, it had been known as consequa, the name assigned to it by Curtis when figured by him in 1831. The form is generally rather smaller than the type; the fore wings are rich reddish brown, clouded to a greater or lesser extent with blackish, and sometimes entirely suffused with that colour. The yellow ground of the hind wings is rarely quite free of black scales, but in some specimens they are so thick that the yellow is hidden. A specimen of this form is shown on Plate [115], Fig. 8. It is found in the Orkneys, Sutherlandshire, Elgin, Inverness, Aberdeenshire; also in the Hebrides, and in the Isles of Bute and Arran.
The caterpillar (Plate [118], Fig. 2), is greenish ochreous varying to greenish brown; three yellowish lines on the back, the central edged with blackish and the others with dark oblong marks; spiracles white, edged with blackish, and below them an ochreous stripe; head grey brown marked with darker. It feeds on grass and most low plants from September to April. The moth is out in July and August.
Abroad it occurs chiefly in Central and Southern Europe, but its range extends to Southern Scandinavia and eastward to Asia Minor and Armenia.
The Lunar Yellow Underwing (Triphæna (Agrotis) orbona = subsequa).
Two specimens of this species are shown on Plate [115]. Fig. 1 represents a specimen from Forres, in Scotland, and Fig. 2 an example from the New Forest, Hants.
Although there is some variation in the colour of the fore wings (which ranges from pale greyish brown to dark reddish brown), and also in the intensity and clearness of the markings, this species is far less aberrant than that last referred to, and