TRIFID.E. 341 



Always and everywhere variable in the colour of the thorax 

 and fore Avings — very pale drab, grey-drab, brown-drab, pale 

 brown, and every shade of red-drab and red-brown to light 

 or dark tawny and brick-red ; also in the distinctness of the 

 markings, which fade out in every degree until they become 

 almost or quite imperceptible; or occasionally become inten- 

 sified, the central shade in particular, until the latter some- 

 times forms a black cloud across the wing; far more fre- 

 quently, however, it is only the two stigmata and the costal 

 wedge that become distinct, the lines and shades remaining 

 obscure. Another phase of variation occurs in the blackening 

 of the dorsal half of the wing, or portions of it, by smoky- 

 black clouds ; and such a specimen in the collection of 

 Mr. P. Basdeu Smith, taken at Plymouth, has in addition 

 the stripe before the subterminal line composed of regular 

 black, sections divided by the pale nervures. An unusually 

 delicate-looking form is taken locally in Essex by the Rev. 

 W. Claxton, of a very soft grey-buff, with the transverse 

 markings faintly purple-brown. Another in the collection of 

 Mr. W. C. Boyd has the ground colour creamy-white, with the 

 lines bright pinkish-fulvous, and the hinder area clouded with 

 a more dull tint of the same. Another in the same collection 

 is almost uniformly deep mahogany-brown so far as the thorax 

 and fore wings are concerned. Perhaps the most curious 

 specimen known to me is one belonging to Mr. G. T. Porritt, 

 in which these portions are wholly spotless white with a 

 reddish tinge, and the hind wings also are nearly white, so 

 that it quite resembles Lcucnnia pallcns. 



On the wing in September and October, or even in mild 

 weather till November. 



Larva rather elongate, somewhat semi-transparent ; head 

 rounded, dull dingy bone colour ; body emerald-green or 

 dull yellowish-green, very minutely and faintly reticulated 

 with grey ; the usual raised dots distinct, whitish ; dorsal 

 and subdorsal lines exceedingly slender and threadlike, 



