P YRA US TIDjE—P YRA US TA. 171 



Antenna of the male simple, ciliated, black-brown ; palpi 

 prominent, i-eddish-brown ; head and thorax dull browu or 

 red-brown ; abdomen slender, smoky brown, each segment 

 edged slenderlj^ with white ; anal tuft dull pale yellow. 

 Fore wings trigonate with rather straight margins ; apex 

 angulated ; colour yellow-brown, olive-brown or reddish- 

 brown, sometimes dusted with black ; the markings obscure, 

 often very faint ; first and second lines rej)resented by 

 indistinct stripes, or portions of stripes, of yellowish cloud- 

 ing ; discal spot round, dull pale yellow ; cilia very glossy, 

 of the ground colour, shot with yellow, and tipped with 

 smoky grey. Hind wings rather broad ; apex fully rounded 

 and hind margin curved ; smoky brown, sometimes with a 

 faint yellowish spot on the costal margin ; in the middle of 

 the wing is a slender, faint, yellow transverse stripe, and often 

 outside this, a more slender one along the hind margin, 

 which however is edged with black ; cilia shining, smoky 

 brown. Female rather smaller; usually of deeper, brighter, 

 or darker colour ; the fore wings more red-brown, the hind 

 blacker, but the yellow markings decidedly more distinct. 



Underside of the fore wings jDale smoky brown ; in the 

 discal cell are two whitish spots edged with black ; along 

 the costa is a pale yellow dash, and a similar cloud edges 

 the second line ; hind margin dotted with black and preceded 

 by a dull yellow cloud. Hind wings very pale smoky brown ; 

 from the base a yellowish white longitudinal stripe, inter- 

 rupted by a central black-brown spot, runs to the pale trans- 

 verse band of the upper side, here reproduced, and followed 

 by another faint yellow band. Legs yellow-brown. 



Rather variable in the lines indicated above, especially so 

 in the female ; also most richly marked in coast districts. 

 In the collection of Mrs. Bazett at Reading is a specimen 

 taken at Wokingham, Berks, which has both fore and hind 

 wings suffused with shining black, and with the pale mark- 

 ings nearly suppressed. 



On the wing in May and June ; in warm spots, in the 



