2i6 LEPIDOPTERA. 



lower half of the reniform stigma, often quite obliterated, 

 exists much more frequently of dull brown or leaden-brown 

 to black, and occasionally is supplemented by another spot, 

 more squared but of the same size, between the stigmata ; 

 but the most considerable variation is in the spots which lie 

 at the back of the subtermiual line — the twin black spots, 

 by which the species is so readily recognised, are occasionally 

 not black but purple-brown, as also is the costal streak above 

 them, and may be found in various paler shades till they 

 become quite obliterated ; in the opposite direction, where 

 these twin spots are deep black, there occur, especially in 

 western districts, examples in which one or two additional 

 pairs, smaller but usually deep black, are placed in the same 

 line. One very beautiful silvery-drab specimen, with visible 

 transverse lines and reddish shading, taken in Pembroke- 

 shire, has four pairs of such dots ; another from the same 

 district, of unusual size, although without additional sub- 

 termiual dots, is of a rich red-buff approaching reddish- 

 brown, with first and second lines complete and rather broad, 

 and, with a considerable central shade, red-brown. An 

 equally strongly-marked example in the collection of Mr. 

 A. Hodges has the first line brown and conspicuous, the 

 second composed of brown dashes, and the central shade 

 dark brown ; a very different specimen from Ireland, in 

 Mr. R. Adkin's collection, has the spaces in the discal 

 cell before and between the stigmata black, the latter 

 united to the spot in the reniform which also is black, 

 also a black spot at the base of the wing, but the twin- 

 spots red-brown ; another, from the New Forest, is red-buff 

 with deeper red transverse lines, but no other markings ; and 

 a specimen in the collection of Mr. S. J. Capper is of a rich 

 yellowish-chestnut slightly clouded with grey. 



On the wing in March and April, but one specimen, which 

 1 have seen, was taken by Dr. Churchill at Chesham, Bucks, 

 at ivy bloom in Octoher. It is of the size of T. stahilis, but 

 well marked. 



