Four examples of this very common and most variable species are shown on Plate 114, Figs. 9-12. The colour of the fore wings ranges from whity brown, or drab, through various shades of grey-brown and red-brown to blackish. The more or less square reniform, and the orbicular, marks are subject to a good deal of modification; in some specimens they are whitish or ochreous and very conspicuous, and in others exceedingly faint or entirely missing; or the reniform may be well defined and prominent, and the orbicular absent; the cross lines are frequently obscure, except the dark-edged, pale submarginal, and this, too, may be wanting; occasionally there is a blackish shade between the stigmata and extending from the front to inner margins. The hind wings of the males are whitish, with a dark marginal border of variable width, but rarely, so far as I have noted, entirely absent; those of the females are uniformly darker. The full-grown caterpillar (Plate 112, Fig. 3) is hardly separable from that of _N. umbrosa_, and feeds at the same date on low-growing plants, etc. The moth flies in August and early September. It is generally distributed throughout the British Isles, and is abundant pretty well everywhere. THE FLAME SHOULDER (_Noctua_ (_Ochropleura_) _plecta_). This moth (Plate 110, Fig. 7) is also common, and generally distributed throughout England, Ireland, Scotland (mainland), and Wales. The fore wings are usually purplish brown, but sometimes they are palish red brown; the creamy stripe on the front margin is more or less sprinkled with scales of the ground colour, occasionally so thickly that these marks appear reddish in tint; there is often a pale, wavy submarginal line, and in some specimens a dusky second line can be detected; not infrequently there are traces of the claviform mark, but I do not remember ever seeing any indication of a first line. The hind wings are white, and frequently the fringes are pale pinky brown. [Illustration] Pl. 114. 1, 2. BARRED CHESTNUT. 3, 4. SMALL SQUARE-SPOT. 5. SIX-STRIPED RUSTIC. 6. COUSIN GERMAN. 7, 8. DOTTED CLAY. 9, 10, 11, 12. SQUARE SPOT RUSTIC. [Illustration] Pl. 115. 1, 2. LUNAR YELLOW UNDERWING. 4, 5, 7, 8. LESSER YELLOW UNDERWING. 3, 6. LARGE YELLOW UNDERWING.