LARENTID^-EUPITHECIA. 37 



cilia spotted with brown. Hind wings rather darker brown, 

 with a curved and elbowed transverse white stripe beyond 

 the middle, and a fainter one close to the hind margin ; cilia 

 white with brown spots. 



A striking and unusually handsome species; not very 

 variable, but the stripes ranging from very pale brown 

 almost without black dots or dashes, to slate-grey with 

 strong black accentuations. Occasional specimens are quite 

 strikingly white; others having darker stripes, also have 

 those of the middle of the fore wings drawn nearer together, 

 so as to form a rather definite central band, rendered more 

 conspicuous by the paler tint of the remaining markings. 



On the wing in June and July. 



Larva elongated and not very slender; head rounded, 

 green, the mouth pinkish-brown ; body bright green ; dorsal 

 line faintly darker ; subdorsal lines broad, white or greyish- 

 white ; spiracular line also broad, white, edged beneath with 

 pinkish-brown ; undersurface green, with a slender middle 

 white longitudinal line ; legs pinkish-brown ; prolegs green, 

 swollen and glassy. 



End of July till September; on Artemisia maritima (sea- 

 wormwood), eating the buds, blossoms, and leaves ; feeding 

 principally at night; remaining during the day closely 

 twisted in the flower spike among the leaves and blossoms. 

 Here its colour and markings exhibit a wonderfully close 

 mimicry of those of its food plant, the white longitudinal 

 stripe on a green ground exactly resembling the grooves 

 filled with silky white hairs down the green sprays and foot 

 stalks of the Artemisia, while the pinkish-brown colour of 

 the mouth and feet is exactly that of the opening buds^ of 

 the plant. In connection with this a curious observation 

 has been made by Mr. G. T. Porritt. Larv!B which he found 

 on the Norfolk coast, upon this plant, were as described- 

 green with white lines and pinkish-brown mouth and legs— 

 these were reared, and from the resulting moths eggs were 



