246 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Variable in size and also in the blackness of the interspaces 

 in the middle and basal area of the fore wings ; beyond this 

 usually pretty constant ; but in South Yorkshire Mr. G. T. 

 Porritt has obtained two very curious foi'ms: one, otherwise 

 sharply marked, has black blotches on the inner edge of the 

 subterminal line, and the first and second lines altered into 

 broad stripes of a rich pinkish-white colour united on the 

 dorsal margin ; the other, of which several were reared, is 

 quite abnormal, yet not in any way crippled, the fore wings 

 being broadened and shortened in a most extraordinary 

 manner, until the breadth from the apex to the anal angle 

 very nearly equals the length ; the pattern of markings is 

 also broadened, and, in some specimens very sharp and 

 distinct, in others obscured by smoky-brown colour; the 

 hind ^vings are shortened and expanded in the same pro- 

 portion. Another singular specimen, in the cabinet of the 

 Kev. Joseph Greene, has the white lines on the nervures of 

 the left wing obliterated, except two short pieces near the 

 apex, the white margins of the stigmata and transverse lines 

 being also absent, and the greater portion of the wing dull 

 brown ; but the right wing has the white lines and the 

 markings of the dorsal portion beyond the middle alone 

 obliterated. 



On the wing in June and July. 



Larva smooth, stout, rather tapering in front, twelfth 

 segment somewhat raised and thickened ; anal prolegs rather 

 extended behind ; anterior segments slightly retractile : head 

 small, rounded, shining, of the same colour as the body but 

 dusted with grey ; body greenish -grey, greyish-ochreous, 

 whitish, or brownish-ochreous, marbled with clearer ochreous, 

 and paler at the incisions, which are sometimes suffused 

 with a pink tint ; the dorsal line is a grey shade containing 

 an interrupted whitish thread : subdorsal lines grey, inter- 

 sected by curved pale streaks, those on the eleventh and 

 twelfth segments edged with black, on the latter especially, 



