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| 2 Pl. 14. |
| 1, 2. | Red Sword-grass, male and female. |
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| 3, 4. | The Sword-grass, ma"e a"d fe" |
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| 2 Pl. 15. |
| 1, 2. | The Mullein Moth. | 4, 5. | The Striped Lychnis. |
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| 3. | The Water Betony. | 6. | The Starwort. |
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The Water Betony (Cucullia scrophulariæ).
A good deal of confusion exists both in Britain and on the Continent as to the identity of the Cucullia figured and described by Capieux in 1789, and by most authors since that time. I have received over twenty specimens from Austria, Germany, and other parts of Europe, sent to me as scrophulariæ. As I have been unable to separate the majority of these specimens from C. lychnitis, and the others from C. verbasci, Mr. F. N. Pierce has been good enough to examine the genitalia of six of the males, and of these he reports four are C. lychnitis, and two are C. verbasci.
In England we certainly have a Cucullia sometimes appearing in the moth state rather later than C. verbasci and always earlier than C. lychnitis; the caterpillar producing it feeds on Scrophularia nodosa in July. It is, however, very local, and is found chiefly in North Kent, and occasionally in the Eastern Counties. Mr. Pierce finds that the male genitalia of a North Kent scrophulariæ sent to him do not differ from these parts in C. verbasci, but Dr. Chapman informs me that he detects a slight difference in one that he examined.
It must be admitted that the identity of the North Kent and East Anglian Cucullia with the scrophulariæ of Capieux is very doubtful, but we evidently shall not be greatly opposed to Continental methods if we continue to allow April and May moths resulting from Scrophularia nodosa caterpillars to do duty for C. scrophulariæ. I have therefore figured as this species a specimen that was reared, with others, in April and May, 1877, from larvæ obtained in the Dartford marshes. (Plate [15], Fig. 3.)