tjo LEPIDOPTERA. 



ant] alonirthe liind margin by a faint blaekisli cloiul containing 

 two or three short black streaks on nerviires; cilia smoky 

 black spotted with deep black. Hind wings rather elongate, 

 a little squared behind, green, with five, single or double, faint 

 transverse smoky black stripes occupying almost the whole 

 surface ; cilia shining, smoky white spotted with black. 

 Female similar, sometimes a little larger and darker. 



Underside very pretty ; fore wings shining smoky white, 

 with a green shade along the costal region, and a white stripe 

 along the dorsal ; discal spot black, preceded by a slender 

 black transverse line, and followed by two conspicuous black 

 stripes, both shaded off inwardly : cilia spotted with white 

 clouds. Hind wings smoky greenish white, with a silvery 

 gloss, the deep black central spot and three stripes as in the 

 fore wings. Body and legs glossy white ; tarsi clouded with 

 black. 



Variation in tliis species is, in one respect, of rather doubt- 

 ful character. Specimens in which the ground colour is pale 

 drab, pale brown, or almost white, but with the markings in- 

 ■tact, are not unfrequent. but it is always doubtful whether 

 they are not those which, originally green, have rapidly 

 -changed colour through the influence of damp or some other 

 cause. Others of intermediate shades of pale green may be 

 more genuine aberrations, j-et even this is doubtful. Such 

 specimens are not rare out of doors, but they do not seem to 

 be reared in these pale forms from the pupa. With regard 

 to an opposite phase of variation the reverse is the case. This 

 is a striking tendency towards melanism, observable in 

 London and a few other cities and large towns. This 

 blackening is sometimes spread over the ordinary markings, 

 making them darker, but much more over the ground colour, 

 which then becomes smoky, often with little or no tinge of 

 green remaining : but in a great proportion of reared specimens 

 the whole insect — fore and hind wings, thorax and abdomen — 

 has become smoky-black or silky-black, no trace of ordinary 

 markings or colour remaining. Sometimes this form is 



