136 LEPIDOPTERA. 



off toward the anal angle ; dorsal margin gracefully curved ; 

 colour drab or ochreous-drab, often with a flush of red 

 shading ; nervures and numerous fine parallel lines between 

 them whitish-drab ; along the upper side of the median 

 nervure is a pale ill-defined narrow stripe, and along its 

 underside a dark brown stripe from the middle of the base 

 plentifully dusted with black scales ; at the end of the 

 discal cell close above this stripe is a distinct round black 

 dot, and at some distance beyond two more placed on nervures, 

 these last perhaps indicating the position of the usual second 

 line though placed rather far back ; cilia pale drab. Hind 

 wings not broad, the hind margin rather sinuous and hollowed 

 below the apex, dark or paler smoke-colour or smoky-grey ; 

 base and costal margin whiter ; nervures smoky -black ; cilia 

 white. Female similar but having the abdomen stouter, and 

 with a very small anal tuft. 



Underside of the fore wings smoky-black, the middle 

 portion clouded with longitudinal stripes of deeper black, the 

 rest dusted with black and shaded with a tinge of pink ; hind 

 wings white, dusted with black-brown and shaded with pink ; 

 body and legs dull drab. 



There is some variation, as already indicated, in the colour, 

 from ochreous-drab to reddish-drab, and in the intensity of 

 the dark stripe from the base, which sometimes is but faint, 

 in other cases supplemented by other dark longitudinal 

 cloudy streaks in the hinder part of the wing or near the 

 costa ; the black dots of the second line are occasionally 

 accompanied by another on the dorsal margin. The hind 

 wings vary considerably in ground colour, in some being 

 almost black, in others very pale smoke-colour, more streaked 

 with white, and these phases occur without reference to sex. 

 In Scotland and Ireland there appears to be a tendency to 

 blackness in these wings, in combination with unusual pale- 

 ness of the fore wings. 



On the wing in July and August, but in the north con- 

 tinuing into September. 



