TRIFID^. 1 5 



Underside of the fore wings light red-brown, dusted with 

 smoky-brown, especially on the basal half ; just beyond the 

 discal cell is a very faint curved transverse smoky-brown 

 line, outside which the colour is paler but divided by another 

 smoky line. Hind wings similar in colour and dusting, 

 central spot smoky-black, followed by two slender brown 

 transverse lines ; hind margin edged with a browner line ; 

 cilia all light red-brown. Body, legs and leg-tufts pale 

 chocolate-red. In the female all the red-brown and chocolate- 

 red are replaced by pale urnbreous. 



There is a constantly recurrent variety of the male, often 

 common, which bears a far greater resemblance to the female — 

 of a pale brownish-drab or yellow-brown, clouded with dull 

 urnbreous, and having the central band of a very soft 

 umbreous, the markings normal except that the white edges 

 to the transverse lines are less distinct, and the stigmata 

 sometimes dusky-white. Intermediates occur much more 

 rarely. In all the colour of the thorax follows that of the 

 central band of the fore wings. In the North of Ireland and 

 in Scotland the red forms are sometimes brighter red and the 

 drab-brown rather darker, while some take a smoky tinge. A 

 specimen from Sutherlandshire, in Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher's 

 collection, has the central band of a rich purple-red, with 

 shading of the same on both base and apex of the wings. A 

 specimen entirely suffused with golden-yellow, through which 

 the darker markings are perceptible, adorns the collection of 

 Mr. S. Stevens. 



On the wing at the end of May and in June. 



Larva slender, cylindrical, though tapering from the third 

 segment to the head and a little from the eleventh to the end 

 of the thirteenth, the skin of tough consistence, finely and 

 conspicuously wrinkled transversely and rather glistening ; 

 head small, rather flattened, shining light brown, mouth 

 darker brown ; dorsal and anal plates light brown, shining ; 

 colour of the body a pale subdued flesh tint, rather inclining 



