TRIFID^. 21 r 



beyond the middle barred with black. Hind wings greyish- 

 white tinged along the costa with brown and dusted all over 

 with dark brown ; central spot black, followed by a row of 

 cloudy-black dots upon nervures. Body and legs dull pale 

 brown; leg tufts paler, tips of the tarsi black- brown barred 

 with dull yellow. 



A'ariation in this species is so great and so constant that 

 even the choice of its names or synonyms has been governed 

 thereby ! In some small degree this has been already in- 

 dicated in the above description. With us the very dark 

 forms are by far the most abundant. They range from 

 brown-black or grey-black, with or without a slatey or 

 bluish flush through various shades of purple-brown and 

 red-brown to deep liver-colour ; some almost unicolorous, 

 in other cases having the central shade distinct and the 

 markings tolerably definite ; also every intermediate stage. 

 These are nearly always glossy. The paler and usually 

 scarcer forms are more divergent, but seldom glossy; grey- 

 brown, grey-drab, reddish-drab, pale drab, pale slate, even 

 pale liver-colour ; sometimes as before almost unicolorousj 

 often with a dai'k and conspicuous angulated central shade, 

 often also with pretty dark streaks or spots at the back of 

 the subterminal line, or with dark dots or streaks or lines 

 on the nervures, or the first and second lines prettily dotted 

 out or more distinctly shown in red-brown lines, or a leaden- 

 black spot occupies the basal half of the reniform stigma ; 

 indeed, all these characters ai*e intermingled in every possible 

 way. One specimen before me — taken in the South London 

 suburbs — is yellow-brown clouded with red, all the nervures 

 broadly dotted with black ; the orbicular and lower portion 

 of the reniform stigma dull black ; a red-brown cloud along 

 the costa and a smoky-black one along the dorsal margin. 

 In the collection of Mr. H. W. Shepheard-Walwyn is a series 

 of specimens of a lovely grey colour with a delicate hoary 

 bloom, all reared from the eggs of a small female of a similar 

 colour captured near Oxford. Perhaps the most striking 



