3 JO LEPIDOPTERA. 



before it is a narrow wliitc or wUitisli parallel stripe ; outsidti 

 it some clouding of l)lack atuiiis, which includes the dot and 

 streak representing the orbicular and claviform stigmata 

 respectively ; renit'orm stigma formed of two superimposed 

 incomplete black rings which enclose white or grey spots ; 

 second line dusky black, sinuous and rather erect, but some- 

 times only represented on the two margins ; this is followed 

 by a white stripe which nearly meets anothei' so placed that 

 a sort of large white cross is formed enclosing two out of 

 three hind-marginal black clouds; extreme hind margin 

 dotted with black in white spaces ; cilia white with smoky 

 dotting. Hind wings ample and rather elongated, rounded 

 behind ; pale grey-brown or whitish-grey ; cilia rather 

 whiter. Female similar. 



Underside of the fore wings silky smoky grey, with a 

 darker spot at the end of the discal cell. Hind wings greyish- 

 white. Body and legs white, the front tarsi blackish, with 

 white bars. 



A very striking and beautiful variety, known as var. 

 I'ortlandica, Dale {plicnoUucn, Stainton) is found rather 

 commonly, mixed with the more ordinary forms, in the 

 Isle of Portland, and rarely in other places ; it has the basal 

 area clear chalky white and a broad oblique band of the same 

 between the stigmata and the hind-marginal clouds, almost 

 obliterating the second line. It was long looked upon as a 

 distinct species ; but has recently been proved by the Dorset 

 entomologists to be merely an extreme form of variation, of 

 which every possible intermediate gradation could be found 

 along with the type. Another variety almost equally distinct in 

 appearance often occurs in company with the type in southern 

 woods ; in it the portion of the fore wings between the two 

 lines is blackened, and the stigmata almost obliterated, so as 

 to produce a blackish band : in other specimens the blackening 

 extends widely over the fore wings ; and perhaps the most 

 reliable character in this species is the even narrowness of 

 its fore wings, with a rov.ndcd apex. 



