P YRA LW.£—P YRALIS. 271 



1. P, farinalis, L. — Expanse 1 to \\ inch. Fore wings 

 silky, dull yellow or reddish-yellow, with purple blotches at 

 the base, apex, and anal angle, cut off by white lines ; hind 

 wings white, with smoky marbling. 



Antennae simple, shining purple ; palpi slender, set apart, 

 pale buff ; head the same colour, tinged above with red- 

 brown; collar dark purple ; thorax purple ; abdomen very 

 silky, red-brown with a yellow-brown-blotch on the middle 

 segments. Fore wings very silky, bluntly trigonate ; costa 

 rather straight ; apex bluntly angulated ; hind margin 

 faintly curved and a little oblique ; base to the first line 

 ■deep purple, or purple-red ; first line white, bent in the 

 middle ; second line also white, forming a large crescent 

 from the costa, a rounded outward curve, and returning, 

 with a short bend, to the dorsal margin just opposite to its 

 •costal extremity ; central space between these two lines very 

 broadly yellow or brownish-yellow, sometimes with a chest- 

 nut suffusion ; space beyond the second line dark purple, 

 often broken into rounded spots at the apex and anal angle 

 by a paler cloud ; cilia yellowish-white, intersected and 

 shaded with smoky black. Hind wings broad, very fully 

 rounded behind, shining white, abundantly clouded with 

 broken and rippled bands of pale smoke colour ; margin 

 ■spotted with rather darker smoke colour ; cilia dusky white. 

 Female similar, rather larger ; the hind wings often more 

 darkly clouded. 



Underside of the fore wings bronzy-yellow along the 

 •costa, dusky white along the dorsal margin, smoky purple 

 between ; second line obscurely white ; bej'ond it the whole 

 apical area is purple-grey. Hind wings smoky white, dusted 

 with dark brown ; beyond the middle a transverse white line 

 is broadened, and in pai't extended to the hind margin. 

 Body purple-brown. Legs pale purple. 



■ On the wing from June till September, possibly in two 

 generations — indeed Mr. F. H. Chittenden gives it as his 

 ■opinion that under favourable conditions (in the United 



