176 LEPIDOPTERA. 



able white spot ; from the middle of the second line to the 

 tip of the wing is a cloudy smoky-purple dash ; hind margin 

 faintly clouded with the same, and edged with black dots ; 

 cilia pale purplish-red. Hind wings very dark smoky-brown, 

 with browner nervui'es ; costal margin and cilia white, shaded 

 with dusky-red. Female a little stouter, but extremely 

 similar. 



Underside of the fore wings curiously coloured ; purple-red 

 along the costal region to the apex ; middle area from the 

 base smoky-black, shading off in the middle of the wing ; 

 dorsal region and that beyond the middle pearly-white ; cilia 

 purple-brown. Hind wings pearly-white, dusted along the 

 costal region and apex with purplish-brown, and with a few 

 dark brown dots along the hind margin. Body and legs 

 reddish-drab, except that the femora of the hinder pair of 

 legs in the male are clothed with large, long tufts of deep 

 black hair-scales. 



Eather variable in colour, sometimes very pale drab, more 

 frequently strongly tinged with smooth soft tawny-red ; in 

 Scotland and Ireland, and less frequently in the Eastern 

 Counties, having the fore wings wholly of the latter colour. 

 Not unfrequently, in all the shades of colour, a clouding of 

 black runs along the median nervure and crosses the reniform 

 stigma, or even blackens the small nervures beyond tlie discal 

 cell ; and in such specimens, when the ground colour is pale, 

 the first and second lines are occasionally rendered more 

 distinct by connecting streaks. In an extraordinary specimen 

 reared by Mr. Joseph Collins, from a larva found at Delamere 

 Forest, Cheshire, the central area of the hind wings is broadly 

 white, the usual dark colour existing as a wide marginal 

 band. 



On the wing from the end of June to the beginning of 

 August. 



Larva plump, of very even thickness, but rather suddenly 

 tapering a little at each extremity; head somewhat small. 



